Condes de Castro Guimarães Museum

Condes de Castro Guimarães Museum
	Location within Portugal
Established	1931;87 years ago
Location	Av. Rei Humberto II de Itália, Cascais, Portugal
Coordinates	38°41′31″N9°25′17″W / 38.6920°N 9.4214°W Coordinates: 38°41′31″N9°25′17″W / 38.6920°N 9.4214°W

Last updated March 21, 2019

The Condes de Castro Guimarães Museum, originally known as the "Torre de S. Sebastião" (Saint Sebastian Tower), was built in 1900 as an aristocrat’s summer residence in Cascais, Lisbon District, Portugal. It became a museum in 1931. The building follows an eclectic architectural style, while the museum includes paintings of national and international significance, furniture, porcelain, jewellery and a neo-Gothic organ.

In the late 19th- and early 20th-century Portuguese Riviera, summer architecture was the style of the summer houses built by affluent Portuguese.

Cascais is a municipality in the Lisbon District of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera. The population in 2011 was 206,479, in an area of 97.40 km². Cascais is a major tourist destination and has many international residents.

Lisbon District is a district located in the South Central Portugal, the district capital is the city of Lisbon, also the national capital. From its creation until 1926, it included the area of the current Setúbal District.

History

The "Torre de S. Sebastião" was built in 1900, to the designs of Francisco Vilaça, by Jorge O'Neil, a Portuguese / Irish aristocrat connected to the tobacco industry, as his summer house in Cascais. O’Neill also constructed the nearby Casa de Santa Maria.

The O'Neill dynasty is a group of families, ultimately all of Irish Gaelic origin, that have held prominent positions and titles in Ireland and elsewhere. As Chiefs of Cenél nEógain, they are historically the most prominent family of the Northern Uí Néill, along with the O'Donnell, O'Doherty and the O'Donnelly clans. The O'Neills hold that their ancestors were Kings of Ailech during the Early Middle Ages, as descendants of Niall of the Nine Hostages.

The Casa de Santa Maria was once a luxurious private residence in Cascais, Lisbon District, Portugal. It was acquired by the Cascais Municipality in October 2004 and is now a museum. It blends several different architectural styles and influences.

The building employs several architectural styles, adopting a Revivalist approach that includes Neo-romanticism, Neo-Gothic, Neo-Manueline and Neo-Moorish. The overall impression is of a medieval castle. There are also some references to O’Neill’s Irish heritage, such as the shamrocks present on the wrought iron door, the Shamrock Room, ceiling paintings, the museum's entrance hall, and the coat of arms of O'Neill on the roof of the turret. ^[1]^[2]

Revivalism in architecture is the use of visual styles that consciously echo the style of a previous architectural era.

The term neo-romanticism is used to cover a variety of movements in philosophy, literature, music, painting, and architecture, as well as social movements, that exist after and incorporate elements from the era of Romanticism. It has been used with reference to late-19th-century composers such as Richard Wagner particularly by Carl Dahlhaus who describes his music as "a late flowering of romanticism in a positivist age". He regards it as synonymous with "the age of Wagner", from about 1850 until 1890—the start of the era of modernism, whose leading early representatives were Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler. It has been applied to writers, painters, and composers who rejected, abandoned, or opposed realism, naturalism, or avant-garde modernism at various points in time from about 1840 down to the present.

Neo-Manueline was a revival architecture and decorative arts style developed in Portugal between the middle of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. The style adopted the characteristics of the Manueline of the 16th century.

The building’s most striking feature is the tower, the base of which juts out into a small cove. The house has an irregular rectangular plan, in two, three and four floors, with several main and triple windows. There are several gargoyles, protruding eaves and porches. The interior is built around a quadrangular cloister. The main rooms are intercommunicating and have beamed ceilings with floors in ceramic tiles with Polychromatic patterns, as well as some tiled walls. Almost all rooms also have tiled stoves, some of which were brought from other buildings.^[1]^[2]

A cove is a small type of bay or coastal inlet. Coves usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creeks, or recesses in a coast are often considered coves.

Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery or sculpture in multiple colors.

In 1910 the house was sold to the 1st Count of Castro Guimarães who, with his wife, lived there until 1927. Many of the pieces now in the museum were acquired during that period. Notable were the purchases of a neo-Gothic organ, built for the Count, and rare 16th Century manuscripts including the valuable “Chronicle of Don Afonso Henriques”, the first king of Portugal, written by Duarte Galvão (1446-1517).^[2]

Afonso I, nicknamed the Conqueror, the Founder or the Great by the Portuguese, and El-Bortukali [in Arabic البرتقالي] and Ibn-Arrink [in Arabic ابن الرَّنك or ابن الرَنْق] by the Moors whom he fought, was the first King of Portugal. He achieved the independence of the southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia, the County of Portugal, from Galicia's overlord, the King of León, in 1139, establishing a new kingdom and doubling its area with the Reconquista, an objective that he pursued until his death in 1185, after forty-six years of wars against the Moors.

The Count died in 1927, donating the house and its garden to the state, with the request that the house be used as a museum and art gallery. The Condes de Castro Guimarães Library Museum was inaugurated on July 12, 1931, and for many years was the only museum in Cascais. Directors have included João Rodrigues da Silva Couto, Carlos Bonvalot, Branquinho da Fonseca and Maria Alice Beaumont. In 1932, the famous Portuguese writer, Fernando Pessoa, applied for the position of curator, but was turned down for lack of qualifications.^[3]

Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa, commonly known as Fernando Pessoa, was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher, described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest poets in the Portuguese language. He also wrote in and translated from English and French.

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References

1 2 "Palácio do Conde de Castro Guimarães / Torre de São Sebastião". Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitetónico. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
1 2 3 "MUSEU CONDES DE CASTRO GUIMARÃES". Agenda Cascais. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
↑ "Museu dos Condes de Castro Guimarães". Travel in Portugal. Retrieved 20 January 2018.

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[Monumentos-1] 1 2 "Palácio do Conde de Castro Guimarães / Torre de São Sebastião". Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitetónico. Retrieved 20 January 2018.

[Cascais-2] 1 2 3 "MUSEU CONDES DE CASTRO GUIMARÃES". Agenda Cascais. Retrieved 20 January 2018.

[3] "Museu dos Condes de Castro Guimarães". Travel in Portugal. Retrieved 20 January 2018.


Location within Portugal

Established	1931;87 years ago (1931)
Location	Av. Rei Humberto II de Itália, Cascais, Portugal
Coordinates	38°41′31″N9°25′17″W / 38.6920°N 9.4214°W / 38.6920; -9.4214 Coordinates: 38°41′31″N9°25′17″W / 38.6920°N 9.4214°W / 38.6920; -9.4214