Museu dos Condes Castro Guimarães

In Cascais, almost above the Santa Marta cove, the Condes de Castro Guimarães Museum shows how a summer residence can become public memory without losing its private charm. The former Tower of São Sebastião was built between 1897 and 1900 on the initiative of Jorge O’Neill, and it became a museum thanks to the legacy of Manuel Inácio de Castro Guimarães, who left the house, the books and its artistic contents to the town for public use. Opened on 12 July 1931, the ensemble preserves a rare atmosphere: rooms with painting, Oriental porcelain, furniture, silver and an organ installed for the Counts’ musical gatherings coexist with the theatrical quality of a revivalist architecture shaped by Neo-Romanesque, Neo-Gothic and Neo-Manueline echoes. The library also holds a quiet treasure: the Chronicle of Afonso Henriques, an illuminated manuscript from 1505 with one of the earliest known representations of Lisbon.