Villages Museum

Category: Culture and Entertainment > Museum

District: Castelo Branco > Vila de Rei > Relva

Location

The Museum of the Villages is located in the small locality of Relva, a village that belongs to the municipality of Vila de Rei. This place offers a tranquil and authentic environment, immersed in the rural landscape of central Portugal.

The museum is housed in the historic Casa Grande, an old three-story stone manor house, with origins dating back to 1630. Its dominant presence in the village of Relva, once home to the Captains of Relva, gives it an aura of authenticity and memory.

The Legacy of Rural Life

At the heart of this ethnographic museum, one discovers an extensive and diverse collection of objects that once filled the daily lives of rural communities. The exhibition is a testament to life in the countryside, the ingenuity and knowledge of other times, bringing together agricultural tools and everyday items.

Throughout its divisions, environments of professions and activities that are rare or have disappeared today are recreated. It is possible to observe the spaces of the barber and dentist, the shoemaker, the blacksmith, the carpenter, and the rooms dedicated to olive oil, irrigation, or flax spinning, allowing an immersion into the memories of a rural past.

A Personal and Creative Vision

The Museum of the Villages is the fruit of the passion and initiative of Aniceto da Silva Nunes, who dedicated many years to collecting and preserving objects that, otherwise, would have been lost. His singular vision transformed the Casa Grande into a space of discovery, where each piece tells a story and evokes the ingenuity and lifestyle of rural workers.

This personal approach gives the museum a distinct atmosphere, where creativity is manifested in the way memory is preserved and presented. It is an invitation to a sensory journey, where one can smell the past and the simplicity of a true life, in a setting that challenges conventional ideas about a museological space.