Mexicana Pastry Shop

Inaugurated in 1946, it is part of a building from the 1940s designed according to the so-called Português Suave style. Nonetheless, it was its full remodelling in the early 1960s, by modern architect Jorge Ferreira Chaves, that made famous this pastry shop located at Praça de Londres. The space was provided with a continuous identity, designed by means of an immersive journey through the Portuguese modern movement in architecture. It is a work of great expressiveness, remarkable for its spatial and architectonic design, as well as for the works of art it houses, by Querubim Lapa. With the 21st century, the city’s dynamics transform, especially the ways one experiences these neighbourhoods, which had grown with the spirit of the modern city, confronting Mexicana with new obstacles and challenges. Thus began a process that destroyed some of its features, during which several interventions were made while ignoring the remarkable value of the pastry shop’s original characteristics and elements. Today, only at the Salão de Chá (Tea Room) can we find the expressionist qualities of this modern work, testimony of an exceptional era in Portuguese architecture and art. Mexicana was classified as a Monument of Public Interest in 2014.