Lisbon (disambiguation)
Lisbon is the capital city of Portugal.
History of Lisbon
Despite the preparations for the 1940 Portuguese World Exhibition, Lisbon was the stage of an unusual movement: as the crossroads of the circulation of refugees from World War II, Lisbon was an important meeting place for spies from both sides, given the neutral character of the country. "In 1940 Lisbon, happiness was staged so that God could believe it still existed," wrote the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. During World War II, Saint-Exupery escaped from France to Portugal and ended up in Lisbon, waiting for a visa to go to America. He was not the only one; the Portuguese capital became a symbol of hope for many refugees. Even Ilsa and Rick, the star-crossed lovers in the film Casablanca, sought a ticket to that "great embarkation point." Thousands had flooded the city, trying to obtain the documents necessary to escape to the United States or Palestine. On June 26 the main HIAS-HICEM (Jewish relief organization) European Office was authorised by the Portuguese Government to be transferred from Paris to Lisbon.
In 1956, the Portuguese Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Dr Pedro Theotonio Pereira, and Bernard Morgan, a retired solicitor from London, organised the first Tall Ships' Race a race of 20 of the world's remaining large sailing ships. The race was from Torquay, Devon, to Lisbon, and was meant to be a last farewell to the era of the great sailing ships. Public interest was so intense, however, that race organisers founded the Sail Training International Association to direct the planning of future events. Since then Tall Ships' Races have occurred annually in various parts of the world, with millions of spectators.