A arquitetura de uma refeição. Palácios reais portugueses na aurora do século XX

Abstract

This is a study on the meal and its ability to create space that makes use of the possibilities for dialogue between culinary practices and architecture. The menu of the royal meal from the late 19th and early 20th centuries served as the starting point, with the collection of over five hundred examples enabling the selection of six case studies: six meals consumed between 1903 and 1907 in six distinct Portuguese royal palaces, triggered by visits from foreign heads of state to Portugal during the reign of King Charles. The architecture of these six palaces - Pena, Vila Viçosa, Sintra, Ajuda, Cidadela de Cascais, and Necessidades - is thus explored in the light of the culinary practices codified in the menus, which appropriated, shaped, and justified a set of spaces, making it possible to identify the food network of these architectural objects as the spatial imprint of the meal within the house. More than introducing the value of culinary practices in the production of knowledge in architecture, this study aims to make it clear that it is impossible to understand the palace without knowing the dynamics of the meal.