Toy Museum

Category: Civil Architecture > Museum

District: Lisboa > Sintra > Sintra > Estefânea

The Toy Museum was a significant cultural institution in Sintra, dedicated to exhibiting an extensive collection of historic toys. Although it has ceased its activities, the history of its collection and its presence in the town left a mark.

Location

The building that housed the museum, starting in 1997, is located in the Estefânea area, right in the heart of Sintra town. It is on Rua Visconde de Monserrate, a central and accessible area for those exploring the town's historic center.

This location enjoyed a position integrated into the town's urban environment, close to other points of interest. The building itself, with its history linked to the community, contributed to the museum's identity during the period it was open. Currently, the space houses another cultural institution.

The Collection and its Genesis

The fundamental basis of the museum's collection was the private collection gathered by João Arbués Moreira over more than six decades. It began simply, with childhood toys, and grew driven by a growing interest in discovering the origins and stories behind each piece found.

The collector dedicated himself to researching and acquiring diverse old toys, accumulating a considerable heritage that reflects the evolution of humanity through play objects. The collection, which eventually exceeded 60,000 pieces, was donated to a foundation created in 1987 with the purpose of preserving and publicly sharing it.

A Miniature Universe

The museum's collection encompassed an extraordinary variety of toys, originating from different parts of the world and dating from various eras, with pieces going back at least to the 17th century. It included everything from transport models such as trains (with Hornby brand examples from the 1930s), cars, and airplanes, to soldier figures, dolls, dollhouses, and a wealth of tinplate and wind-up mechanical toys.

The diversity of materials, typologies, and geographical and temporal origins of the exhibited toys offered a comprehensive insight into how children played in different societies and historical periods. It was considered the most important collection of its kind in Portugal.

Toys that Tell Stories

The vision behind the museum was that toys are much more than simple entertainment objects. Each piece in the collection was regarded as an artifact capable of revealing aspects of the social and cultural history of the eras to which it belonged.

Through toys, it was possible to trace the evolution of customs, technologies, fashions, and even conflicts and ideologies. The museum thus proposed a particular way of looking at history, viewed through the child's universe and the objects that populated it throughout the centuries.

The Historic Building

The "home" where the Toy Museum was permanently established, starting in 1997, was the old fire station of the Sintra volunteer firefighters. This building, steeped in local history, underwent a rehabilitation intervention to adapt it to its new museological function.

The architectural project, by Aires Mateus, transformed the space to house and exhibit the vast collection of toys, respecting the original structure of the fire station. The choice of this historic building, due to its central location and its past, contributed to the museum's identity in the town.

License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.pt