Almada Route

This emblematic New State building, designed by the architect Pardal Monteiro, is home to eight al fresco paintings (two triptychs and two separate compositions) and wall paintings by Almada. Considered masterpieces of 20th-century Portuguese painting, they date from 1944 and evoke the Portuguese maritime voyages of the 15th and 16th centuries and scenes from daily life in Lisbon.

Opening hours: Pre-arranged guided tours available from Monday to Friday via the phone no. and email above

Price: Free

Built between 1934 and 1938, this church, designed by architect Pardal Monteiro, features lots of stained glass, mosaics and cast iron by Almada Negreiros. Standing out above the main entrance, in the choir, is a stained glass window depicting the Holy Trinity. Also by Almada is the decoration of the side aisles, the baptistery, the Chapel of Nossa Senhora da Piedade and six side altars. Besides the stained glass, he also designed the mosaics.

Opening hours: 8.00 am – 7.45 pm

Price: Free admission

Designed in the Modernist style by architect Pardal Monteiro, this building was commissioned by the dictatorship to impress those departing and arriving in Lisbon on luxury liners. In the lobby on the second floor, six panels by Almada decorate two high and wide parallel walls. Like the Gare Marítima de Alcântara, the artist was inspired by those for whom the sea was a source of livelihood and portrays varinas (women selling fish on the streets), sailors, fishermen and those departing and standing alongside ships.

Opening hours: Pre-arranged guided tours available from Monday to Friday via the phone no. and email above

Price: Free admission

Neo-Gothic in inspiration, this church was designed in 1964 by the architect Vasco Regaleira. Behind the side altars can be seen bordering stained glass windows facing in opposite directions by Almada Negreiros inspired by the Santo Condestável (St. Constable), a Portuguese warrior saint. By means of the forms and by playing with the light, the artist manages to convey the duality of human nature and its divine vocation through the mythical figure of this medieval knight.

Opening hours: Everyday from 8.00 am – 7.30 pm

Price: Free admission

A rare example in Almada Negreiros’s oeuvre, the tile cladding on this building, which was once the property of the Portuguese Railways, was installed during remodelling work begun in 1952. Produced by the famous Viúva Lamego Factory, the tiles have a repetitive and undulating pattern and introduce an element of irreverence to the featureless architecture of a typical building from the Estado Novo (New State) era.

In 1956, Almada Negreiros decorated this school with two wall panels. Inspired by the theme of education, both are located inside the building. On the wall of the steps leading to the fourth floor is a panel depicting a group of pupils in a geography lesson. Near the gym is another fresco with boys in gym clothes doing exercise. Far from merely figurative, these artworks mirror man’s multifaceted nature, a quality the artist always praised.

Lisbon Classical University’s Faculty of Law building, the first of a series of three designed by architect Pardal Monteiro’s studio, dates from 1957. Asked to decorate its facades, Almada Negreiros chose the technique of incised drawing. On the wall to the left, he makes an allusion to the philosophy of law and the state, from the Code of Hammurabi to Plato, St. Augustine and Roman Law. The wall to the right he reserved for the history of Portuguese law, where he depicts a score of Portuguese legal consultants from various eras.

This is the second of a complex of three buildings to which Almada Negreiros contributed. Using the same technique applied to the Faculty of Law – incised drawing – the artist paid homage to various figures from Portuguese and world literature, from Camões to Cervantes. Like a comic strip, major figures of the Renaissance, Rationalism and Experimental Science parade across the building’s facade. On the right can be seen a space dedicated to Portuguese history and culture.

Along with 32 other artists, Almada Negreiros was invited to design three tapestries, sgrafitto on marble, and a tile panel to clad the north facade of this building, inaugurated in 1959. The tapestries and sgraffito are on the 1st floor, at ground floor level, where a grand hall is located. But the stone panel, incised with gold, has the greatest impact of this impressive set of artworks.

On the third floor of the three buildings comprising the Cidade Universitária in Lisbon, completed in 1961, Almada Negreiros persisted with the technique of incised drawing and in that way used the symbols associated with the oceans, the stars and the world, an eternal mystery to be unveiled. He extols the Portuguese maritime discoveries, the audacity of a people with a roving spirit and a source of pride and inspiration.

This is where you can find one of Almada Negreiros’s best-known works, an oil on canvas called Maternidade [Maternity] (1935), a theme widely explored by the artist. Besides this key piece, also on show at the Modern Art Centre is the drawing for the cover of the first issue of the magazine Contemporânea, a copy of Sudoeste – Cadernos de Almada Negreiros dating from 1935, the catalogue for a solo exhibition held in 1952 and an anthology of unseen work by contemporary Portuguese authors illustrated by the artist.  

Opening hours: 10.00 am – 6.00 pm. Closed on Tuesday

Price: Founder’s Collection and Modern Collection: €10.

Discounts:

50% for visitors under 30 and over 65;

20% - Lisbon Card, Lisbon Sightseeing, Cartão Ciência Viva.

Free admission: Sundays from 2 pm; under 18s accompanied by an adult; those escorting the disabled or people with reduced mobility.

In the lobby of the main building of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation can be seen Almada Negreiros’s major work Começar [Beginning], a large limestone panel measuring 1,287cm x 231cm with a polychrome incised geometric design. Dating from 1968, it reveals the artist’s fascination with geometry, the “perfect species”, the language of the future and the symbol of human intelligence. At the top of the steps leading to the various auditoriums are two long tapestries entitled Partida de Emigrantes [Emigrants Departing] and Domingo Lisboeta [Lisbon Sunday], which reproduce the frescoes created for the Gare Marítima Rocha Conde de Óbidos. Beside the Grand Auditorium is another tapestry dating from 1953 which depicts an artist and a model.

Opening hours: Everyday from 10.00 am – 6.00 pm

Price: Free admission

For the 100th anniversary of the birth of Almada Negreiros, this tile-clad concrete structure was inaugurated with digitally printed figurative elements by the sculptor Leonel Moura. Represented on it is the figure of the artist, associated with the Futurist movement, of which he was one of the main advocates in Portugal. Entitled Alma Moderna, this work can be seen in Avenida Engenheiro Duarte Pacheco.

At the entrance to the Red Line in Saldanha Metro Station, aspects of Almada Negreiros’s literary and artistic work are reproduced in art form by architect José Afonso de Almada Negreiros, the artist’s son. Tiles from the Viúva Lamego Ceramics Factory were used for this project by architect Germano Venade.

Opening hours: Everyday from 6.30 am – 1.00 am

Price: Single-use ticket: €1.45

This sculpture by the architects Catarina and Rita de Almada Negreiros, granddaughters of Almada Negreiros, was inaugurated in 2013 for the 120th anniversary of his birth. Entitled Reminiscência de Almada [Reminiscences of Almada], it is 9m x 4m in size and made of weathering steel, and reproduces the famous self-portrait Auto-reminiscência [Self-Reminiscence] drawn in Indian ink. It stands in Ribeira das Naus, in dialogue with the Tagus, which so inspired him.

In the lobby of the building housing the Auditor’s Court in Lisbon can be seen two tapestries by Almada Negreiros entitled O Contador [The Accountant] and O Número [The Number]. The latter reveals one of the artist’s fascinations: mathematics and, associated with it, geometry. He considered this a field that was close to sacred, a challenge for those who through art wish to unveil the essence of things and, in particular, what the future has in store.

Opening hours: Working days from 9 am to 5.30 pm

In the old audience chamber of the Court of Auditors in the building in Praça do Comércio occupied by the Ministry of Finance, you’ll find the oil on canvas paintings A Receção pela Rainha D. Maria II do Duque de Ávila, que lhe leva o Decreto da Criação do Tribunal de Contas [Queen Maria II Receives the Duke of Ávila Bearing the Decree Creating the Auditor’s Court] and A Criação por Decreto do Novo Tribunal de Contas [The Creation by Decree of the New Auditor’s Court]. Expressly commissioned from Almada Negreiros to decorate this room, these two works date from 1958. Both allude to the creation of the Court of Auditors on 10 November 1849.

Opening hours:  Visits only available by prior arrangement

The tile patterns which surround the doors of various buildings in Avenida Gago Coutinho in Lisbon are attributed to Almada Negreiros, as drawings that appear to be designs for them were discovered amongst his possessions. His work on these types of geometric compositions on tile was aimed at creating modules of patterns that could be created in series. His closeness to the industry is demonstrative of his broad view of art, something that found its basis in Modernist thought, which regarded all art forms as equal.

This café-restaurant, as a rule associated with the poet Fernando Pessoa, was also one of Almada Negreiros’s favourite meeting places. In fact, both often sat at the same table at Martinho and it’s said that it was here that Pessoa had his last coffee, in the artist’s company, on 28th November 1935, before dying two days later at S. Luiz Hospital.

Opening hours: 7.00 am – 11.00 pm. Closed on Sunday.

Average price: €35

Designed by the architects Nuno Teotónio Pereira and Bartolomeu da Costa Cabral, this building was constructed in 1956, the year Almada Negreiros created the two mosaic murals commissioned for its interior. At the side entrance is Meninos Brincando [Children Playing], in which all the figures are inspired by movement, and in the lobby in the main entrance is Alegoria à Construção [Allegory to Building], a composition inspired by the cinematic aesthetic of the era. This building is one of the most notable examples of Modernist architecture in Portugal.

If you want to write a guide about the places where Almada left a mark, São Luiz Theatre has to be included. On 14th April 1917, it was then called the Theatre of the Republic and was the stage for the conference “Futurist Ultimatum to the Portuguese Generations of the 20th Century”, presented by the artist. At this event, which the theatre commemorated 100 years later with a series of initiatives, Almada Negreiros tried to rouse the Portuguese from their state of lethargy. The effect may have been far from hoped for, but it was certainly much talked about.

Opening hours: Everyday from 1.00 – 8.00 pm