Category: Civil Architecture > Museum
District: Açores > Corvo > Vila do Corvo > Centro Histórico
The Corvo Ecomuseum is located in Vila do Corvo, the island's only urban area. Its various physical structures are scattered throughout the Historic Centre, integrated into the traditional urban fabric, and in higher points of the locality. Corvo Island itself has been recognized as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 2007, which highlights the particularity of its natural and cultural environment, shaped by unique volcanic landscapes.
The central location of its main features allows for an easy and immersive discovery of the environment that frames Corvo's life, reflecting the essence of a museum that extends throughout the entire island territory.
The Corvo Ecomuseum differs from a conventional museum. It is not limited to a building with exhibitions but encompasses the entire island, functioning as a true territorial museum. Its mission is to safeguard, value, and transmit Corvo's rich heritage, be it cultural, natural, human, or landscape-related. This museological project, inaugurated in 2015, aims for the local community itself to preserve and interpret its heritage, promoting sustainable development.
It is the only ecomuseum in the Azores archipelago, playing a fundamental role in collecting, conserving, and presenting the testimonies, both material and intangible, of the relationship between humankind and its unique environment on this small and singular Azorean island.
One of the central points of the Corvo Ecomuseum visitor experience is the House of Time. This physical structure, inaugurated in 2019, is housed in a 17th or 18th-century building in the old core of Vila do Corvo, which was carefully rehabilitated to preserve its original design. The House of Time functions as an entryway to the island, offering visitors the opportunity to understand the history of its settlement and the first centuries of life on Corvo through various contents and an insightful mini-documentary.
This space is designed to provide a knowledge base that encourages territorial exploration, allowing each visitor to build their own discovery route around the island, based on their interests and the information presented there.
Among the heritage resources integrated into the Corvo Ecomuseum, Lourenço's Animal-Powered Mill stands out. This is the only surviving example of the five such mills that once existed on the island. The animal-powered mill is a rustic device, a cereal mill traditionally driven by animals, usually bovines, which played a crucial role in Corvo's cereal activity for centuries.
It represents a living testimony to the resilience and agricultural practices that ensured the subsistence of the Corvo community throughout history. Observing this device allows for a direct connection with the daily life and challenges faced by the island's inhabitants, at a time when cereal grinding was vital and independent of wind power.
The Multipurpose Pavilion, inaugurated in 2011, is another relevant component of the Corvo Ecomuseum's physical network. Its location at one of the highest points in Vila do Corvo makes it a visible landmark in the landscape. With a simple exterior architecture, clad in wood and surrounded by basalt walls, the building harmoniously integrates into the environment.
Although it is a physical structure of the Ecomuseum, the Multipurpose Pavilion is a place of strong cultural dynamism on the island, hosting various manifestations such as exhibitions, cinema, theatre, lectures, and other socio-cultural events, which enrich community life and complement the visitor experience, offering a perspective on Corvo's cultural vitality.
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.pt
Coordinates DD: 39.6737223,-31.1115944
Coordinates DMS: 39°40'25.4"N 31°06'41.7"W
Weather Vila do Corvo
On-duty Pharmacy Vila do Corvo
