Welcome Reception
The welcome reception will take place in Guimarães, at Museu Alberto Sampaio, on the 19th of September, at 20h30.
The Alberto Sampaio Museum is located in the heart of the historic centre, in the place where Countess Mumadona ordered a monastery to be built in the 10th century. Although it was initially a double monastery, at the beginning of the 12th century it became a Colegiate, having undergone some rebuilding by this time.
However, it was in the reign of D. João I that major enlargement and improvement of the buildings of the Collegiate Church began. The construction of a new church dedicated to St. Mary of Guimarães was started and finished during the reign of this king.
In the 16th century, the church, cloisters and House of the Priorate underwent significant renovation works and during the following centuries the Church was under constant alteration with some additions being made. At the end of the 18th century the Chapter House underwent major reconstruction, this being the building that today serves as the main entrance to the Museum.
When the buildings belonging to the Colegiada de Nossa Senhora da Oliveira passed into the hands of the State, an important programme of works was undertaken adapting the building to the needs of a museum. Work began on the cloister and the 1st floor of the House of the Priorate on 14 May 1928. Alfredo Guimarães was officially nominated as the Museum’s Director on 19 October 1932. In 1935, works for converting the building finished, the Museum having at its disposition the Cloister and five more rooms as exhibition space for its collections. Besides these, there were three rooms in which the library, administrative services and storage area of the Museum functioned.
In the 1960’s the Direcção Geral dos Edifícios e Monumentos Nacionais do Norte embarked on conservation work and the recuperation of all the House of the Priorate building and Chapter House. The spaces thereby remodelled were inaugurated in 1967, the Museum now being able to count with modern services, a conferences room and its own spaces for temporary exhibitions.
Between 1999 and 2004, the Museum underwent further restoration and remodelling works gaining a new look: the reception area and the museum storage and exhibition spaces are rejuvenated.
Soon, the museum will have a new building in Praça de Santiago, offered by the Municipality of Guimarães, which will have the following areas: Administrative Services, Reserves, Conferences Room and rooms for temporary exhibitions. The project of architecture was created by Architect Filipe Vilas Boas, from the Town Hall of Guimarães.