In search of the literary heritage of Cascais

Abstract

Despite the growing investment in literary tourism projects throughout the country in recent years, this offer is still too scattered and disorganised in Portugal, given its acknowledged literary wealth. This scenario led to the creation of the Cascais Literary Tour, a project developed as a master’s thesis at the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon (FLUL), with the decisive support of the Cascais Municipality. Based mainly on documentary research, it was a quest for the local literary heritage that culminated in the birth of a new tourist experience. Today, the Cascais Literary Tour can be followed independently, with the help of the material available online or with the free assistance of a guide. The first results showed that the lack of coordination between culture and tourism, highlighted in previous studies on the subject, had extended to the municipal level. Consequently, there is room for improvement in the dialogue. Although the Cascais Literary Tour was officially launched at the end of 2019, it has already inspired master’s students at the Estoril Institute for Hotel and Tourism Studies (ESHTE). They have added a gastronomic component to the existing route with their A Taste of Cascais project, with special gastro-literary events held in 2021, 2022 and 2023. If the recognition of the literary value of a place is based on the importance attached to a lively interpretation of the literary heritage, we can say that this principle has been respected in these initiatives, reinforcing the conviction that it is essential to go beyond the text and give to the literary experience a performative component.

Keywords

• literary tourism
• literary itineraries
• literary heritage
• gastronomic tourism
• cascais