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...if ever there was a work of art combining all three of them in the most meaningful way possible, it's arguably the mural featured on the cover picture.

Notwithstanding Salazar's dictatorship and a great war raging on the continent, the two of them created a miracle that has for 86 years taught children history, art and, maybe even more importantly, the skill of being Portuguese

The incongruity implies a troubled past full of dark secrets - such as a guilty love affair, an assassination, a macabre revenge...and a lasting memory.

It's easy to appreciate art objects that are meant to be decorative - skillfully crafted and aesthetically pleasing but, so-to-say, practically useless.

Full-fledged art objects, some carriages also served as a social lubricant by facilitating relationships between both individuals and countries.

For some reason, human beings are really obsessed with extremes. They never fail to feel duly impressed by the word "most" and its equivalents represented by the "est" suffix of an adjective.

The sense of involvement - and ultimately, belonging - is crucial for fado, and it's Portuguese language that helps to understand just how crucial.

So big and authentic was the need, and so genuine the passion that what started centuries ago as a spontaneous reaction of affected underprivileged communities has grown into a fabric of Portuguese national identity.

That event shattered the country and reimagined it for centuries to come in a variety of ways.