Regional Houses
Minho Council House
It's the pride of being from Minho and the contagious joy that reigns at Casa do Minho in Lisbon. Everything goes hand in hand with a rich gastronomy, a green red wine and a Vira to go with it.
"Minho and Minho women have a lot of joy in their bodies. If there's food and drink, a concertina comes on and we jump into the yard, with a case of wine, a piece of bread with fried codfish, talking about Minho and Lisbon."
Paulo Duque, 59, from Covas, Vila Nova de Cerveira, chairman of the board of Casa do Minho, confesses that there are often more Lisboners than Minho residents at the traditional lunches the house organizes.
Minho Council House, one of the oldest in Lisbon
Founded in 1923 by seven locals from Monção, Arcos de Valdevez, Póvoa do Lanhoso and Braga. They wanted to bring "a bit of the province of Minho" to the city, preserve and disseminate the region's culture and, above all, help their countrymen who were arriving in Lisbon, many without jobs, clothes or food.
"Minho people, especially those from Raia, came to Lisbon a lot at the end of the 19th century in search of a better life," explains Paulo Duque. This was no longer the case for the Minho people from the Ave Valley, Barcelos or Braga, an industrial region with no job difficulties. In Lisbon, they worked almost exclusively in the restaurant industry: "In the restaurant industry in Lisbon, it's almost all Minho people and their descendants," says Duque.
"Even today, in terms of restaurants, the Minho is an embassy in the city of Lisbon",
he says, pointing to a table where there is no shortage of cornbread, codfish, rojões, sausages and red wine. "We do six or seven themed lunches during the year. Lamprey is the ex-libris and it starts now. In May we have Pica-no-Chão. We buy and order the roosters up in Minho and they're cooked here, just like in the old days."
But it's the lamprey that makes Paulo Duque rejoice: "Lamprey is a dish unlike any other.we make lamprey here, which comes from Vila Nova de Cerveira, just as the water comes from there, the wine also comes from the Minho region, the sausages come from the Minho region (...) because we try to be genuine and maintain our loyalty to the province. But lamprey... it's a gastronomic orgy." So where can you eat a good lamprey in Lisbon? "You can eat it in many places, like Casa do Minho," he says with satisfaction."
For Minho and the Minho people
Minho Council House in Lisbon isn't just about gastronomy, it's also rich in popular traditions that Lisboners love to see. The Rancho Folclórico performances are one of them:
"it's the oldest ranch in the city of Lisbon. It was born 20 years later than the house, in 1943. We put on around 40 performances a year".
The 65-strong rancho represents the whole region, with costumes from Guimarães to Viana, from Ponte Lima to Barcelos. There are washerwomen from Baixo and Alto Minho, Mordomas or simple feirar costumes, with their colorful slippers or their popular chancas and clogs.
The celebration of Easter, the Sunday after Easter Sunday, is a reason to fill Casa do Minho with members, friends and "Lumiar parishioners". The Minho pilgrimage in honor of Our Lady of Minho and Santiago, which Casa do Minho recreates, is also a highlight of the promotion of Minho traditions in Lisbon, with a mass and procession through the streets of Belém. on New Year's Eve, Casa do Minho celebrates the new year at its headquarters, for members and friends, and after midnight goes out into the streets of the neighborhood, with a group of drums, to the delight of everyone. At the end, says Paulo Duque, "there's always a green of honor for the people who accompany us".
The Casa do Minho in Lisbon is one of the most cherished in the city. Not least because there are almost 500,000 Minho residents in Lisbon. It has twice been awarded the Gold Medal by the Lumiar Council and the Gold Medal by the Portuguese Federation of Collectivities.
It is located at Rua Prof. Orlando Ribeiro, 3D, in the parish of Lumiar.