Casa-Museu Fernando de Castro, Porto

Casa-Museu Fernando de Castro is a house museum devoted to the poet, caricaturist, merchant and collector Fernando de Castro. Its modest street exterior conceals rooms filled with carved, gilded woodwork in a Baroque manner, creating the unexpected feel of a chapel inside a private residence. Fernando de Castro inherited a share in his family’s trading business, but administration held little interest for him.

He turned instead to caricature, humorous drawing, and writing in verse and prose. His collecting brought together paintings, sculpture and ceramics from Portugal and abroad, including sacred statues, ceramics by Rafael Bordalo and Teixeira Lopes, and paintings by artists such as Malhoa and Silva Porto. After his death, his sister gave the house and collection to the Portuguese state. Since 1952, the Soares dos Reis National Museum has cared for the museum.