Clandestine printing press – drawing by José Dias Coelho which appeared in underground communist newspaper Avante 1961
Salazar came to power in Portugal through a military coup in 1926 and in 1933 established a “New State” – fascist dictatorship.
The PIDE (political police) played a major role in the state, and the building which houses this museum was used to incarcerate and torture prisoners until the revolution in 1974.
It’s a fantastic multi-media exhibition, going through the whole period, in many ways demonstrating the development of a fascist state.
So many people were murdered or just disappeared during this time and thus museum honours their sacrifice.
There is also a temporary exhibition about José Dias Coelho, an artist and revolutionary who was murdered in 1961. My father knew his family and we went to Portugal in the 60s we used to visit them
Here is a link to a song written to commemorate his life
If you go to Lisbon do visit this museum – it is an education!
The last time we went to Portalegre we visited the Tapestry factory thinking we were at the museum. This time we managed to find the museum … and what a fantastic place. One of the staff who spoke excellent English gave us our own guided tour, describing the origins of the tapestry industry in the town and showing us some of the artists, their paintings and how the art form has progressed over the past 50 years. The particular techniques they use are protected by law and no one else is allowed to use them. Here are photos of some of the works.
Just some of the coloursOne of the designs on graph paper
Stayed at a Camperstop in the pretty village of Vila Viçosa In Alentejo on our way to visit a vineyard. Great big car park area, had some toilets, and we discovered a delightful restaurant in the park. The village had once been the home to the Bragança dynasty and has some amazingly huge buildings
We left Sanlucar de Barramada and our visit to Anne and Neil’s lovely house and entered Portugal, travelling to Evora, the capital of Alentejo, a place I’d visited many years ago in the 60s and 70s and has remained in my memory ever since.
Evora is a medieval walled town. It was a centre of trade during the time of the Moors and had its hey-day in the 14 to 16 centuries when it was favoured by the House of Avis, as well as artists and scholars. Then in 1580 Spain seized the throne, the royal court left and the town started to waste away. Its very fine old centre has been left undeveloped.
The narrow windy streets have white washed houses with either blue or ochra painted around the windows and doors.
Towering in the old town is the Templo Romano which is said to be a temple to Diana. It’s extremely well preserved and was apparently walled up in the Middle Ages to form a small fortress and then used as the town slaughterhouse! It’s pretty impressive. Throughout the whole Alentejo region you can find loads of Roman remains.
The Termas Romanas is easy to miss as it’s inside the local town hall. It was only discovered in 1987, includes a nine meter laconicum (steam room), and in 1994 they discovered an open air swimming pool! It’s quite surreal as you go into the town hall and there’s the laconicum and there are windows into people’s offices so you can look across and see them working and of course they have a window into Roman times.
All over Alentejo they have quite recently discovered both Roman and Moorish artefacts when carrying out developments.
Termas Romanas laconicum
The Capela dos Ossos is a very strange place. It’s within the Igreja de São Francisco and is a room lined with the bones and skulls of about 5000 people. It’s said it was the solution to overflowing graveyards decided upon by three 17-century Franciscan monks. It’s fairly creepy.
Capela dos Ossos
The Igreja de São João is a beautiful little church and well worth a visit. It has extraordinary azulejos(wall tiles) from the 18-C. It also has an underworld of an ossuary full of monks bones, and a deep Moorish cistern.
Azulejos in Igreja de São JoãoOssuary under the church
We stayed in the campsite on edge of town. It’s one of those quite old tired campsites but it was perfectly ok and an easy 20 minute walk into town. There was also a sports area nearby where we could go for a pleasant morning jog!
