The Palácio dos Condes de Castro Guimarães, originally known as the Torre de São Sebastião (St Sebastian's Tower), was built in 1900 as an aristocrat’s summer residence in

Cascais Cascais () is a town and municipality in the Lisbon District of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera, Estoril Coast. The municipality has a total of 214,158 inhabitants in an area of 97.40 km2. Cascais is an important tourism in Port ...

Lisbon District Lisbon District () is a district located along the western coast of Portugal. The district capital is the city of Lisbon, which is also the national capital. From its creation until 1926, it included the area of the current Setúbal District. ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. 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 Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

organ.

History

Jorge O'Neill built the Torre de São Sebastião in 1900, to the designs of Francisco Vilaça. O'Neill was a Portuguese aristocrat of distant Irish descent who had multiple business interests including Portugal's match monopoly. The nearby Casa de Santa Maria was also constructed at his behest. The building employs several architectural styles, adopting a Revivalist approach that includes

Neo-romanticism 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 ...

, Neo-Gothic,

Neo-Manueline Neo-Manueline is a revival style of architecture which drew from the 16th century Manueline Late Gothic architecture of Portugal. Neo-Manueline constructions have been built across Portugal, Brazil, and the Lusophone, Lusophone world (the former P ...

and

Neo-Moorish Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mid-19th centu ...

. The overall impression is of a medieval castle. References to O'Neill's Irish heritage can also be found scattered throughout the building, particularly in the so-called Shamrock Room. The building's most striking feature is the tower, the base of which juts out into a small

cove A cove is a small bay or coastal inlet. They usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creek (tidal), creeks, or recesses in a coast ...

. 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. 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). 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 Couto, Carlos Bonvalot,

Branquinho da Fonseca António José Branquinho da Fonseca (4 May 1905 – 7 May 1974) was a Portuguese writer. Some of his early works were published under the pseudonym António Madeira. He is best remembered as the first editor of '' Presença'', "one of the most imp ...

and Maria Alice Beaumont. In 1932, the famous Portuguese writer,

Fernando Pessoa Fernando António Nogueira de Seabra Pessoa (; ; 13 June 1888 – 30 November 1935) was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, and publisher. He has been described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th c ...

, applied for the position of curator, but was turned down for lack of qualifications.

References

* {{Authority control Buildings and structures in Cascais Art museums and galleries in Portugal Museums in Lisbon District Summer architecture Houses completed in 1900 Museums established in 1931 1931 establishments in Portugal