How Lisbon Went from Backwater to Drowning in Riches

Queues are a common sight outside the midnight-blue doors of the Antiga Confeitaria de Belém, in the Lisbon riverside district of the same name. Inside this café, some very special pastries are on sale. Only three members of staff possess the secret recipe for the sweet custard tarts produced there since 1837, and they say the bakery in the back produces on average 40,000 of them a day in the peak tourist season.

Cosmopolitan Lisbon was the place to be if you wanted news or gossip about what was happening across the globe. Portugal went from European minnow to big fish.

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