House Museum Bissaya Barreto
What is now a House Museum was, for almost 50 years, the private residence of Fernando Bissaya Barreto (1886-1974), eminent Professor of Medicine at the University of Coimbra, surgeon, humanist and philanthropist, great reference
reference in the history of care and social medicine in Portugal.
A visit to this Museum House provides an approach to its spaces of intimacy and gathering. The building and its architectural particularities, the garden and its decorative and ornamental aesthetics, the furniture stuffing and the art collections, reveal the importance that the values of Beauty, Order, Perfection and Aesthetics represented in Bissaya Barreto's life.
Greatnesses of importance not only to their personal well-being, but imposed on the construction and ornamentation of the countless welfare establishments, for their action built, in the central region of the country.
Designed by the architect Fiel Viterbo, the construction of this large residence was initiated in 1923 and completed in 1925.
Built on two floors, in an eclectic style with accentuated suggestions of the Portuguese Johannine Baroque, is crowned by a large and very beautiful octagonal turret, legantly fenestrated. The house and garden ensemble reflects the taste and artistic sensibility of the owner, expressively marked by the artistic works that beautify and adorn, that he himself commissioned to the workshops of reputed craftsmen and artists of the region.
BISSAYA BARRETO DOCUMENTATION CENTER
The Documentation Center has its own facilities integrated into the Bissaya Barreto House Museum. Open to the public since 2009, its main function is the gathering, conservation, treatment and dissemination of the documentation produced by / about Professor Bissaya Barreto, with a view to promoting the study, knowledge and dissemination of Bissaya Barreto's Life and Work, as well as of the Foundation he created in 1958.
The Bissaya Barreto Documentation Center offers the personal archive of Bissaya Barreto, as well as some documentary series from the Bissaya Barreto Foundation, indispensable sources for the study of Life and Work of Bissaya Barreto and his legacy from here: Bissaya Barreto's personal archive and FBB documentary series available for consultation.
The bibliographic collection has more than 6500 monographs dealing, among others, on themes related to the History of Health, Medicine and Care, Hygiene, Childcare and Pedagogy, History of Portugal (Republic and New State), among others. To this collection are added more than 400 titles of periodical publications of Medicine. Also noteworthy is all the relevant set of works in which Bissaya Barreto is the author and all the passive bibliography published about Man and his work.
Opening hours
May to September: Tuesday to Friday from 11h to 13h, and from 3p.m. to 6 p.m; Saturdays and Sundays from 3p.m to 6p.m.. October to April: Tuesday to Friday from 11a.m. to 1p.m. and from 3p.m to 6p.m.
* Closed on Mondays and holidays.