By Harry Nara · Last updated
- Where
- Rossio, Praça da Figueira and Chiado
- Tickets
- Free to watch in places, ticketed at the main venues
- Time of year
- November
- Dates
- Around the same dates every year
Fixed to 11 November every year, Saint Martin’s day. The braziers appear on the streets for several weeks either side of it, but the day itself is when the magusto happens properly.
There is nothing to book and nowhere to be. Saint Martin’s day is a food tradition rather than an event: coal-drum braziers appear across Rossio, Praça da Figueira and Chiado, chestnuts come out of them into twists of newspaper, and they are eaten hot with the year’s new wine, which is still rough and barely finished. That is the whole thing. The reason to know about it is that it lands in the cheapest, quietest month of the Lisbon year, and it is the one day that month when the city visibly celebrates something.
What São Martinho actually is
The magusto, Portugal’s chestnut festival, held on the feast of Saint Martin. The saying goes that on Saint Martin’s day you go to the cellar and taste the wine, and that is exactly what happens: the year’s wine is opened while it is still young and cloudy, in two forms. Água-pé is the weaker one, made by adding water to the pressed grape skins and fermenting what comes out. Jeropiga is the sweet fortified one. Neither is sophisticated and neither is meant to be. Alongside them come castanhas assadas, chestnuts scored and roasted black over coals, sold hot from carts by weight. It is also often the warmest stretch of the month, a spell mild enough that Portuguese has a name for it, the summer of Saint Martin.
Where to watch São Martinho
- Rossio and Praça da Figueira, which is where the carts concentrate. The coal drums stand out in the open with the smoke going straight up, and these two squares are where you will find several within a minute of each other. This is the default and it is the right one.
- Chiado, for the same thing on a nicer street. Carts work the top of Rua Garrett and around Largo do Chiado. Slightly more expensive, considerably better looking, and easy to combine with the bookshops and cafés around it.
- A tasca, for the drinking half. The wine is the part visitors skip and it is half the tradition. Any old neighbourhood tasca will pour água-pé or jeropiga around the day and will be pleased you asked for it.
- Golegã, if you want to make a day of it. The national horse fair runs in the same stretch and has done since the sixteenth century, about an hour and a half north. It is a genuinely distinctive day out and it is timed to this tradition rather than coinciding with it by accident.
Tickets and what it costs
There is nothing to buy a ticket for. A cone of chestnuts from a street brazier runs a few euros depending on weight, and a glass of água-pé or jeropiga in a tasca is cheap enough that the price is not the point. Restaurants sometimes run a magusto menu on the day, and those are worth booking if you want to sit down to it rather than eat standing in a square, but the street version is the authentic one and costs almost nothing. This falls in the cheapest month of the Lisbon year, which is the wider reason to consider November at all.
Official information and booking: www.visitlisboa.com
Getting there
Everything is in the middle of the city and walkable. Metro to Rossio or Baixa-Chiado puts you within a minute or two of the main concentration of carts, and the walk between Rossio, Praça da Figueira and Chiado takes about ten minutes at a stroll. For Golegã you need a train or a bus north and most of a day, so treat that as a separate plan rather than an add-on. One practical note for the month rather than the day: this is the wettest stretch of the Lisbon year, so the braziers are a wet-weather pleasure as often as not.
Mistakes worth avoiding
Expecting an event
There is no parade, no stage and no programme. It is carts, smoke and a tradition of drinking young wine. Turning up looking for something to watch is the surest way to miss what is good about it.
Eating the chestnuts and skipping the wine
The whole saying is about going to the cellar and tasting the wine. Água-pé and jeropiga are the other half of the tradition and neither is hard to find if you ask for them by name in a tasca.
Booking a November city break inside Web Summit week
The conference lands in the same month and roughly trebles hotel prices for the week around it. If you are not attending, come the week before or after and pay a fraction for the same city.
Assuming it is a public holiday
It is not. Shops, offices and schools run normally and the tradition happens around them, mostly in the late afternoon and evening as people come out of work.
Judging the wine as wine
Água-pé is deliberately thin and jeropiga is deliberately sweet. Both are young, rough and drunk for what they represent rather than for quality. Ordering them expecting a good glass of Douro misreads the whole thing.
Other Lisbon events
Frequently asked questions
What is São Martinho?
Saint Martin’s day, marked across Portugal with the magusto: chestnuts roasted over coals and eaten hot from paper cones, alongside the year’s new wine. It is a food and drink tradition rather than a staged event, and in Lisbon it plays out on the street in the central squares.
What are água-pé and jeropiga?
Both are young wines drunk with the chestnuts. Água-pé is made by adding water to the pressed grape skins and fermenting the result, so it is light and thin. Jeropiga is sweet and fortified. Neither is meant to be refined, and asking for them by name in a tasca is the easiest way to find them.
Where do I find the chestnut sellers in Lisbon?
Rossio and Praça da Figueira have the highest concentration, with more around Chiado and the top of Rua Garrett. Look for the smoke rather than the cart: the braziers are converted coal drums and they are visible from the far side of a square. They work from late afternoon into the evening.
Is it a public holiday?
No. It is a normal working day and the tradition happens around it, which is part of why it feels like something the city does for itself rather than for visitors. Most of the activity is in the late afternoon and evening.
What is the summer of Saint Martin?
A warm spell that often lands around the feast day, in the middle of an otherwise wet and cool month. Portuguese has a name for it, Verão de São Martinho, and it is a real and reasonably reliable pattern rather than folklore, though you should not plan a trip on it.
Is November worth visiting Lisbon otherwise?
It is the cheapest and calmest month of the year alongside February, with empty museums, fado at its best and the Christmas lights arriving in the final week. The trade is that it is also the wettest month, and that you must route around Web Summit or pay roughly triple for a hotel.
Sources
- Visit Lisboa, the official city tourism board
- Visit Portugal, the national tourism board
- Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, the city council
Dates on this page are checked against the organiser’s own listing and confirmed through 2027. Written and maintained by Harry Nara.