From palace to museum
The Palácio dos Biscainhos is located on the street that gave it its name, in an allusion to the craftsmen from Biscay who settled here in the 16th century and who worked on the urban development of Braga.
The construction of this house started with Constantino Ribeiro do Lago, in the 19th century. XVII, and was enlarged, by the then Deão do Cabido da Sé, D. Francisco Pereira da Silva, between the end of that same century and the middle of the following.
At the time of the death of the Deão, in 1748, and by will, the Palace is inherited by his brother Diogo Sousa e Silva, married to D. Catarina Teresa Montenegro Lemos de Sottomayor, having as daughter D. Antónia de Sousa da Silva Montenegro.
D. Antónia marries D. António Pereira de Pinto Eça (1708-1771), who inherit the Palace and promote works of requalification especially in terms of the garden and the nascent facade.
These have as their daughter and heir D. Catarina Teresa Fortunata Pereira Pinto of Eça Montenegro, who marries João Pereira Forjaz Coutinho, having as daughter Maria Angelina Pereira Pinto Forjaz of Eça Montenegro. It is with D. Maria Angelina and her marriage with her cousin Damião Pereira da Silva Menezes and Noronha, 6th Lord of Bertiandos, that the two morgadios, from Biscainhos and Bertiandos. From this union, the first count of Bertiandos, D. Gonçalo Pereira da Silva Sousa and Menezes, was born in 1797.
When the 1st count of Bertiandos dies, he is heir to the title and morgadios D. Joana Maria Pereira da Silva de Sousa Menezes (1827-1896), who is married Sebastião Correia Sá Menezes, born of this union several children, among them D. Maria da Conceição Eugénia, who married the 2nd Viscount of Paço de Nespereira.
From this marriage was born D. Gaspar Lobo Machado do Amaral Cardoso Menezes, 3rd Viscount of Paço de Nespereira, who will inherit the Palace on the death of his parents.
On February 24, 1954, the Minho Province Board presented a proposal for the creation of a museum. The completion of this project was made possible on March 25, 1963, with the acquisition by the State of Palácio dos Biscainhos, from the 3rd Viscount of Paço de Nespereira, before his death in 1963 and in 1964, after restoration works, canon Arlindo Ribeiro da Cunha started the process of forming the Museum’s collection.
The initial museological program was the responsibility of an installation commission made up of conservatives Maria Emília Amaral Teixeira and Maria Clementina Quaresma and architect Roberto Leão.
The Museu dos Biscainhos opened to the public on February 11, 1978, and was supervised by the Central Administration from March 17, 1987.
This eighteenth-century Heritage is classified as Public Interest by Decree No. 37,366 of April 5, 194
