Popularly known as “the Cork Museum“, the Santa Maria de Lamas Museum (MSML) is an unusual case in the history of Portuguese museums of the 20th century. Resulting from the collectors spirit of its founder, the notoriously industrial “corker”, Henrique Amorim (1902 – 1977), the Santa Maria de Lamas Museum stands out thanks to the quantity, quality and variety (typological and seasonal) of his works. A truly plural collection gathered and reorganized from a museum perspective, starting in 2004 and which presents religious works of art, sculptures, ethnography, natural sciences, cork works / agglomerate and industrial archaeology. It should be noted that this latest collection, besides highlighting the potential of this raw material it reflects the identity of the local community and constitutes a true cultural heritage that MSML aims to preserve, study, disseminate and value in complete manner. Given the founder of the Museum’s link with the cork industry and the location of the equipment in the cork territory, it totally complies with his desire to honour this raw material and throughout the permanent exhibition there are replicas in cork and its derivatives of the more emblematic works in the collection, as is the case of the nucleus of medieval sculpture.
The cork in the Museum is presented as “a raw material par excellence”, applicable to art and as a tribute to the heritage and history of the Portuguese identity. Photo: MSML Archive
Theatrical visit – “Where have the clothes of the cork oak gone?” and a workshop of plastic expression. Photos: MSML Archive
EDUCATIONAL SERVICE
MSML offers the public array of dynamic options that allow direct contact with the collections comprised in it. Individually, as a family or in a group, the public can enjoy the usual general guided tour or themed visits, with the aim of getting to know the history of the place as well as seeing the permanent exhibition. The Museum has its own educational service, of high theoretical and recreational quality, bringing awareness to the participant about the art, the cultural / industrial heritage and its conservation.
Throughout the course, in addition to the permanent educational program, the Museum promotes various educational activities complemented by plastic expression workshops. Of course, the ever-present resource is the cork itself, contributing in this way to the diffusion of the environmental importance and sustainability provided by this material and the cork oak forest.
SHOP
The MSML shop offers its visitors a wide variety of products made from cork and its derivatives, either inspired by motifs present in their collection or others that refer to events or festivities. All of these are made entirely by the technicians of the Museum. Worth mentioning is the line of objects associated with the “Medieval Journey in Tierras de Santa Maria” and also the Nativity scenes for Christmas. MSML accepts orders for all types of objects in cork. Contact us and request your quote!
Nativity bazaar (set of mangers made from cork in the Museum). Photo: MSML Archive
Itinerant tactile exhibition “Medieval Art” incorporated into the thematic area “Small Artists” and promoted by the MSML in the Medieval Journey in Tierras de Santa Maria. Photo: MSML Archive
OTHER INFORMATION
- Support for educational and cultural projects. Research and publications relating to the Cork Oak forest theme.
- Exhibitions of pieces / exhibition spaces for activities relating to the cork sector (presentation of books, temporary exhibitions, fashion shows, school projects and academic work, etc.).
- Concession of the itinerant tactile exhibition “Medieval Art” – a body of exhibition pieces that integrates large-scale replicas made from agglomerate cork and consists of three medieval sculptures that are part of the MSML religious art collection. Visually or through touch, we are invited to discover the volume and expressive lines of these exemplary pieces, so significant in medieval art and worship in the Iberian Peninsula and Europe.
Useful Information – Tickets
Adult: 3€
Seniors, students and bearers of the “cartão-jovem”: 2€
Free entrance: children under 5 years (general visits only)
All the VISITS PLUS WORKSHOP have an entrance fee of 3€
PUBLIC OPENING HOURS
9.30h – 12.30h
14.00h – 17.00h*
Closed: Easter Sunday, May 1st, November 1st, December from the 24th to the 26th, December 31st and January 1st.
* From May through to September until 17.30h.
MORE INFORMATION
Museu de Santa Maria de Lamas
Largo da Igreja, 90 – Parque de Santa Maria de Lamas
4535-412 Santa Maria de Lamas
Santa Maria da Feira
T. 22 744 74 68 | 91 664 76 85
geral@museudelamas.pt – www.museudelamas.pt
Source: Information supplied by Município de Santa Maria da Feira.