The old among the new

He gets up every day at 6:30 am to pick the fruit he sells at the Campo de Ourique Market, near his childhood home and where he has been working for 63 years. He began selling bananas but today he has a varied but poor filled stall. After all, “the business goes weak.”

Mr. João Fernandes Dantas, who pronounces his name with proud, was born in 1920 (“do the math”, as he told us). He watched all the changes in this Lisbon neighborhood, considered the best to live in by Monocle magazine, had since the first half of the twentieth century. When he speaks about the neighboorhood a radiand smile covers enlights his face and says he “likes everything”.

Who goes today to Campo de Ourique Market expects to find modernity, avant-garde food and style. Besides all this, you discover yet the tradition of those who know the neighborhood as anyone and are happy with all this change. Mr. João is proud to say he is the oldest of the market and likes to be surrounded by young people. This new vitality of his work place seems to have been reflected in this nice man whom the residents of Campo de Ourique know so well and who reminds us of the role that traditional market have on the food culture and social life of Lisbon.