Vendors Drive Christmas Turkey Flocks Through Lisbon Streets

Street vending of turkeys during the Christmas season, Lisbon

(From @ Arquivo de Municipal de Lisboa/ Photo from the collection of Paulo Guedes)

"An unusual image from a time (decade of 1910 or 1920?) when turkeys, served on the Christmas menu of the more fortunate, arrived in the city still alive, coming from the countryside. Bred on the outskirts of Lisbon, they were led by vendors through the streets of the capital, in flocks, until they found a buyer."

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A Childhood Christmas Memory

Turkeys strutting on Lisbon streets are a childhood Christmas memory from the mid-1960s of João Paulo Martins, the wine columnist for Expresso. A wine journalist for more than three decades, it is not surprising that his nose recalls the pungent pageantry in Expresso (December 4):

"Days before Christmas, there was a ritual of going to Martim Moniz with my father to get the turkey. In the central area of the square, which is nothing like it is today, hundreds of live turkeys were displayed, brought from I don't even know where, by the breeders, and the smell was unbearable!

"After choosing one, we would take it home, where it was given brandy until it was so dizzy it couldn't feel the knife going across its neck."

The Photographer

The photographer, Paulo Emílio Guedes (Mondim da Beira 1876 -- Lisbon 1947) was very successful, a contemporary of Joshua Benoliel (Lisbon 1873 -- Lisbon 1932), the official photographer for King Carlos I but who was known for his versatility, reporting on everything from society parties to street scenes.

Owner of a stationery and printing ship in Lisbon, Paulo Guedes became known for his extensive production of illustrated postcards, according to the information on the back of a copy of the photograph distributed with Correio da Manhã.

According to the Municipal Archive of Lisbon, by 1912, he had edited about 1,900 different postcards. He printed images from various locations and by different people but mainly the many that he himself captured and also provided to other printing houses.

Paulo Guedes photographed and, later, edited thematic collections, namely about Almada, a city connected to Lisbon by the 25 of April Bridge. In Lisbon, he took panoramic views, photographed the streets, immortalized people, and shot social events and festivals. Lisboa na Rua (Lisbon on the Street) was a very successful series.

His artistic work merited reference in a book by António Sena about the history of photography in Portugal because Paulo Guedes was represented at an exhibition of the newspaper, O Século, in 1936, entitled Uma Viagem Através de Portugal (A Voyage Across Portugal), and intended to revive the collections of photographs which circulated on trains.