1964 - ONE IDEA

The idea of creating the Alhandra Museum – Dr. Sousa Martins House - goes back to the year 1962, when an exhibition was held to celebrate the first centenary of Sociedade Euterpe Alhandrense. It was then formed an Installing Commission which was expected to install a Museum and which started its activity by gathering documents, photographs and objects that would be part of the Museum. Abel Botto e Sousa, born in Alhandra and his family contributed in a decisive way to increase the Museum patrimony with important documents about the history of Alhandra.

The collection was presented in 1964 at an exhibition in which the plastic artists from Alhandra Augusto Bértholo, Luís Fernando Ralha and René Bértholo also participated.
The former commission included Álvaro de Oliveira Pais, Júlio Graça, Dr. António Eduardo Vieira, Eng. Orlando Martins, the President of the local council Alberto Graça and the Purveyor of the Civil Hospital, Luís Carvalho.
The main objectives for the Museum were its administration and maintenance, a Library, conferences, visits, evening reunions, initiation courses and promotion of literary activities, the dwellers’ artistic and scientific education, a bulletin, memories and monographs of local historical interest and also the establishment of scholarships for students attending the local schools.
Not until 1974, with the implantation of Democracy and the rise of new perspectives, could the local council go ahead with the Museum project.

1978 - A NEW INSTALLING COMMISSION

In 1978 the commission was composed of the following members: Diamantino Mangáz, Vitor de Carvalho, Júlio Graça, António Primavera and Raul Pedro. They had been entitled by the local council and all aimed at purchasing the house where the notable doctor of the 19th century, José Thomás de Sousa Martins, had been born. The Museum would definitively be settled there.

Álvaro de Oliveira Pais	Júlio Graça	Vitor deCarvalho	Diamantino Mangaz

There was a public subscription all over the country with numbered lists, all of them registered and sealed by the local council with the purpose of purchasing the building. It would become a reality in 1984.

1985 / 1992 - PURCHASE, REPAIRS AND MUSEUM PROJECT

The commission accomplished the required tasks to recover the building and to adapt it to its new condition. The original space was enlarged with two new rooms for exhibitions. There are at the present six rooms, which are available for exhibitions.
Efforts were combined between the local council and the town hall of Vila Franca de Xira. Dr. Clara Camacho and Architect Correia Farinha played important roles with museum and architectural projects; as a result of such a work, we have nowadays a very admired museum.
In 1992, in order to assure the museum a permanent functioning, the town hall decided to appoint Dina Teresa Diniz Alenquer as a local museum technician. The neorealist writer Júlio Graça, one of the founders of the museum, was assigned as its director and has been in charge since then.

MUSEUM PROJECT

The museum project was based on a thematic organisation with the purpose of showing relevant historical aspects to preserve the local identity.

· The exhibition Do Telhal à Fábrica (“From the Tile Kiln to the Factory”) refers the most important economic activities that were once typical in this small town. From the so-called Telhais (the traditional way to make brick and tile) to the settling of a strong industrial activity in Alhandra in the 19th century (textile and cement areas).
The river Tagus was also a valuable economic element due not only to the richness coming from fishing but also to the fact that people and goods could be easily transported.
· Another exhibition implies a more specific nature and it is about Dr. Sousa Martins. It englobes personal and scientific documents as well as objects which belonged to such a remarkable person.
· Exhibition of documents connected with the history of Alhandra since its first Foral (“Charter”) till the registration of properties remounting to the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. It also includes documents about Salvador Marques Theatre.
· Vida Quotidiana – do Trabalho à Festa
(“Daily Life – from Work to Leisure”)
An ethnographic exhibition that shows the daily life in the Lezíria (a tract of marshy land alongside the rive) by pointing out the role played by the “campino“ (a typical rural worker) and his struggle as cattle breeder (of bulls and horses). It recovers the typical clothes related to bullfighting, from the famous “forcados“ and horsemen to the banderilleros of the late 19th century and early 20th.
It also emphasises the importance of the associative spirit in Alhandra, specially in the 19th and 20th centuries, portraying the activities that took place in Sociedade Euterpe Alhandrense, founded in the 19th century and actually important in the areas of culture and leisure. It finally refers the importance of the Association of Volunteer Firemen, founded in 1900.
· Exhibition Desporto em Alhandra (“Sport in Alhandra“) – it shows the relevance of sport in Alhandra with Alhandra Sporting Clube, which started its activities in 1921 and which had swimming as principal modality. Baptista Pereira became famous as a swimmer and, after getting many national records, he succeeded in crossing the English Channel, in 1954.
Many other sports, such as football, gymnastics, athletics, basketball, sailing and canoeing have contributed for a healthy development of a great number of young people.

1992 / 2002 – INVENTORY

The persons who were responsible for the museum made a research of all the assets composing its heap as well as its registration and archive, which was organised in a way to make it easy of access.
The Consultive Commission was officially created in 1993. It includes not only the President of the different Associations of Alhandra but also the Schoolmaster of Soeiro Pereira Gomes School and representatives of the official elementary schools. A town councillor (from the cultural area) and the President of the local council are also members of this group and together they try to approach several items related to the Museum and to the local council. This enables an approach at different levels, searching an interaction among all the cultural agents with the cultural enrichment of the whole community.
The room which was more recently opened to the public gave life to a long-lasting exhibition; it celebrates the most popular local swimmer and the practice of sport in Alhandra in a general way. There were some improvements in the space and it finally opened on September 12, 1993.

OBJECTIVES

The Museum is a cultural institution that aims at researching and transmitting its tangible and intangible patrimony.
It is required to guarantee the preservation of many collections and its main target is the development of Culture, Research and Education. It is also required to give voice to a doctor’s life and work – a famous doctor whose memory is celebrated here.
The Museum is expected to welcome visitors and to allow consults both to its library and to its private archive. It is also expected to promote research about Dr. Sousa Martins and the local history.

EDUCATION

The Museum has had the satisfaction of welcoming students, mainly from the local schools. It is possible to have guided visits to the Museum, when they are previously booked and if there are teachers in the groups. These visits usually last thirty minutes. Photocopies about Alhandra are also available when needed for the students’ tasks. This is a way to keep the traditional role the Museum has been playing since its creation.

DOCUMENT AND SHORT-LASTING ARTISTIC EXHIBITIONS

· Augusto Bértholo Gallery - Alhandra Museum House

Among all the activities that have taken place since 1992, there have been short-lasting exhibitions under the guidelines of the Cultural Department of Vila Franca de Xira which has always supported the Museum in the promotion of the artists who are interested in showing their work in the gallery.
The Museum has also held several short-lasting thematic exhibitions, such as:
. Salvador Marques Theatre, in 1993 (supported by ADAPA)
. Afonso de Albuquerque, in 1994
. the 75th anniversary of ASC, in 1996
. Dr. Sousa Martins – 100 years after his death, in 1997
. typical persons from Alhandra, in 1998.

The gallery started its activities in 1992. It is a space for short-lasting exhibitions and it has the name of the painter Augusto Bértholo, who was born in Alhandra.

PUBLISHING PROGRAMME IN THE MUSEUM

This programme has as principal objective to provide information about the collections, the services and the research work to a wide number of people who eventually are not given the opportunity to visit the Museum.
The museum edition includes:
- Origens da Vila de Alhandra–Memórias (“Roots of Alhandra-Memories”), 1978;
- Museu de Alhandra – Casa Dr. Sousa Martins - Monografia (“Alhandra Museum - Dr. Sousa Martins House - Monograph”), 1985;
- Figuras Notáveis nascidas na Vila de Alhandra e no seu Concelho extinto em 1985 (“Remarkable people who were born in Alhandra and in the area of its Council extinct in 1985”), 1986;
- Alhandra 1930 – Um Telhal – Monografia (“Alhandra 1930 - A tile kiln – Monograph”), 1986;
- O Culto ao Dr. Sousa Martins, (“The Cult to Dr. Sousa Martins”, written by Pedro Teotónio Pereira) e Lágrimas e Possessão, (“Tears and Possession”, the work of Anabela Gomes David”), 1996;
- O Roteiro do Museu (“The Museum Rotary”);
- O Desdobrável (“The Leaflet”);
- Postais Illustrados sobre o Museu e sobre o Património de Alhandra (“Illustrated Postcards about the museum and about Alhandra”), 1894;
- A Nosografia de Antero (“The Nosography of Antero, written by Dr. Sousa Martins”), 1894;
- Published by Gradiva, Professor José Machado Pais wrote Sousa Martins e suas Memórias Sociais (“Sousa Martins and his Social Memories”), ISCTE.

AUDIOVISUAL SUPPORT

- Horizontes da Memória (“Horizons of the Memory”) - author: Professor José Hermano Saraiva for RTP 2;
- Fenómenos “(Phenominal Occurrences”), for RTP 2 - about Dr. Sousa Martins;
- Lançamento Oficial do Almanaque Ribeirinho (“Official Publication of the Waterside Almanac”), in Sic News.

JOSÉ THOMÁS DE SOUSA MARTINS

Dr. Sousa Martins was born in Alhandra at a typical Portuguese house near the river on the 7th March, 1843.
He lived in Alhandra where he attended the elementary school. He was twelve years old when, following his mother’s advice and having already lost his father, he went to Lisbon in a frigate. He left Alhandra looking at the riverbanks with nostalgia, as he had grown and had played there with other boys of his age.
His uncle Lázaro Joaquim de Sousa Pereira (his mother’s brother) welcomed him in Lisbon. Working in the pharmaceutics branch, his uncle was the owner of Farmácia Ultramarina, in Rua de S. Paulo.
When Sousa Martins was twelve years old, he had lessons in Liceu Nacional de Lisboa in the morning, he helped his uncle in the afternoon and he devoted himself to hard work at night.
After finishing the high school and with a wide knowledge as a result of his part-time activity, he started his studies in Escola Politécnica in order to become a pharmacist.
In 1868, he was appointed as Demonstrator at the Medical Department in Escola de Lisboa, having then been elected Member of the Society of Medical Sciences.
In 1872, he became a university professor in Lisbon and in 1874 he was assigned as a doctor in Hospital de S. José; he was chosen to represent Portugal at the International Medical Conference in Vienna.
Dr. Sousa Martins accomplished a great number of tasks: he was Secretary and Librarian in the Medical School, professor of General Pathology, Semeiology and Medical History, President of the Executive Commission and Medicine Branch of the Scientific Expedition to Serra da Estrela as well as Director of St. Michael’s Ward in Hospital de S. José.
In 1897, being a Delegate at the International Conference in Venice and having been elected Vice-President, he had to return to Lisbon. Tuberculosis was affecting his feeble body.
As a last attempt to recover his health, Dr. Sousa Martins came back to Alhandra and stayed on a farm that belonged to a friend of his.
It was too late. On 18th August, 1897, Sousa Martins died of tuberculosis.

THE CULT

Anthropologists and sociologists have studied the cult to Dr. Sousa Martins, deeply ingrained in the Portuguese culture, in order to understand, in a scientific perspective, the presence of the religious cult in such a wide and transversal public. Being a religious phenomenon at the beginning, it draws the curiosity and a deep belief when someone needs his supernatural help.
This help is real and it mostly corresponds to health problems for which his intervention is requested. This fact is proved through endless messages left by faithful people; many of these messages are engraved in the marble.
Being part of the History of Religion in Portugal, the sense of devotion towards Dr. Sousa Martins as a saint arises spontaneously and is kept in an inorganic way.
The cult takes place around his vault in Alhandra, his statue in Praça 7 de Março, in Alhandra and his statue at Campo dos Mártires da Pátria, in Lisbon.
Many people visit these places along the year to pay homage to such a great man, but it mainly happens on 7th March and 18th August, dates of his birth and death. The visitors also visit the house where he was born, now Alhandra Museum.
This religious phenomenon has been developing, as a sum of individualised affinities, between the believer and the saint, a form of religious individualism leading to a connection with the supernatural, which can explain its historical success. The saint is the trustee that represents the sacred level; both his image and his name inspire a strong relationship of affection in the believer who adheres as an individual to devotion and sees Dr. Sousa Martins as an interceptor of many expectations.