The Historic Cafe Antiga Confeitaria de Belem has a history that dates from 1837. At that time, the Cafe, based on an ancient recipe that originated from monks, began to produce a very special sweet. The name of the sweet was Pastéis de Belémm, a delicacy with cream, and eggs, which is famous in Portugal!

The story says that around 1834, a monk from the Belem monastery gave these sweets to a grocery store in Lisbon for sale, in order to gather money for the monastery. The sweets quickly became known as ‘pasteis de Belém’ and there were so delicious that people loved them.

In 1837, the secret recipe of the monastery “passed” to the owner of the Cafe, which today is Antiga Confeitaria de Belem, and he only revealed it to the main chef, who prepared the sweets in a “secret room” daily. History also says that this recipe has remained unchanged to date!

Today these sweet delights are a trademark of Lisbon and on the list of most tourists visiting Portugal!