Confeitaria Nacional: The King Cake of Praça da Figueira
Why is it significant?
Stop at the window of the Confeitaria Nacional, on the corner of Praça da Figueira, and give your eyes a moment to adjust to the gold.
Key Facts
| Place | Confeitaria Nacional: The King Cake of Praça da Figueira |
|---|---|
| Address | Praça da Figueira 18B, 1100-241 Lisboa, Portugal |
| Geo Coordinates | 38.71310, -9.13810 |
| Part of Walk | Ginjinha, Salt Cod and Custard Tarts: A Lisbon Food Walk from the Baixa to Cais do Sodré |
| Generated | Generated |
Stop at the window of the Confeitaria Nacional, on the corner of Praça da Figueira, and give your eyes a moment to adjust to the gold. Mirrors, carved wood, glass cabinets stacked with sweets the colour of egg yolk, and, around Christmas, ring-shaped cakes studded with candied fruit like the jewels on a crown.
This shop opened in 1829, founded by Baltazar Roiz Castanheiro, and it is one of the oldest pastry shops in Lisbon. Its great claim to fame is that crown-shaped cake, the bolo-rei, the king cake. The idea came from France, where a gâteau des rois is eaten at Epiphany, and the family adapted it here in the second half of the nineteenth century. Lisbon fell for it, and before long every pastry shop in the country was baking its own.
Then politics got involved. When Portugal became a republic in 1910, a cake named after a king was suddenly a little awkward, and the story goes that some bakers tried calling it the president's cake. The name never stuck. Kings come and go; cakes stay. Tradition says that whoever finds the dried broad bean baked inside must buy next year's cake, so Portuguese families slice it very carefully indeed.
Now turn around and look at the square. Before 1755 much of this ground was taken up by the Hospital Real de Todos-os-Santos, the great royal hospital of Lisbon, and the earthquake and the fires that followed left it in ruins. On the cleared ground the city put a market, and in 1885 an iron and glass hall rose over the whole square, the belly of Lisbon, piled with fruit, poultry and vegetables from the farms around the city. It was pulled down in 1949.
The king on horseback in the middle is João the First, set up here in 1971. He founded the dynasty whose sons launched the age of the sea voyages... and those voyages brought home the cinnamon and the sugar that every pastry in this window depends on. Now walk south down Rua dos Correeiros, the saddlers' street, for a few blocks. Under a bank, something much older than any cake is waiting.