Café Majestic Porto in the Last Drawing of a Sketchbook
2025-02-01
The last drawing in this sketchbook, one that I think took me longer to finish than any other, definitely longer than I thought it would. It’s a whole sketchbook of my urban sketches made here in Portugal. Since I got here, I’ve started a few different sketchbooks, but this one I kept just for this new land we chose to live in.
There are a few drawings in it that I really love, and this last one is one of them. I went to buy some art supplies on Rua Santa Catarina and remembered I still hadn’t drawn the iconic Café Majestic Porto in all this time I’ve been living here.
About Café Majestic
Café Majestic first opened its doors on December 17, 1921, under the name Elite. The following year, it took on the name it still carries today. With its striking Art Nouveau decor, the café quickly became a meeting spot for writers, artists, and intellectuals in 1920s Porto, a living piece of the city’s cultural history, right in the middle of Rua Santa Catarina.
So the moment was set. Leaning against a lamppost, I sketched out the café’s facade with the pens I’d just bought, and finished it at home with a few watercolor stains.