A magnificent urbanistic work endowed with unique infrastructures in Portugal, at the time. In 1938 it already had running water, an exemplary urban sewage system and respective treatment plant, a garbage collection system with an incinerator, electricity produced from its own hydroelectric power plant, as well as an uncommon urban planning, having wide roads with sidewalks, green areas and public gardens of incomparable beauty and in a never seen before dimension. It is in this setting that, in 1921 and 1923, Dr. Jerónimo de Lacerda's two sons, Abel and João, were born.

Aware that the progress of medicine would dictate the end of Caramulo as a treatment center, Abel, who had embarked on a career in economics, and his brother João, a doctor, began to look for ideas that would ensure the survival of their hometown and the continuation of the work they had inherited. They decided to plan the transformation of the existing structures into mountain tourism facilities and remove from the name Caramulo its association with disease, converting the mountain scenery into a center of cultural and artistic attraction.

It was with this idea in mind that Abel and João de Lacerda founded, in the 50s, a unique museum, located on a mountain in the center of Portugal, with lush vegetation, facing south, over an 80 km long valley: the country's largest panorama. Abel de Lacerda, passionate about art, constructed a building, with the most modern concepts of museology, to exhibit a unique collection of works of art consisting of 500 pieces of paintings, sculptures, furniture, ceramics, and tapestries, ranging from Ancient Egypt to Picasso.

João de Lacerda, passionate about cars, constructed another building adjacent to the first, designed to exhibit 100 cars and motorcycles, on the principle that all the vehicles could easily exit, for their display and conservation. With the premature death of Abel de Lacerda in 1957, the Abel de Lacerda Foundation was created - today known as the Abel and João de Lacerda Foundation - which owns the Museu do Caramulo. Open to the public all year round, the Museu do Caramulo has already received more than a million and a half visitors since its creation. The building planned by Abel de Lacerda, to house the precious antiquities donated, was inaugurated by the President of the Republic in 1959, and was one of the first museums conceived and built in Portugal, with all the modern requirements of museology.

Source: Museu do Caramulo