Palacete Visconde Pereira Machado (Núcleo do Porto da Liga dos Combatentes)
Monuments
Of the various current rooms in the palace, those used for the museum collection stand out. The room where the noble acts of the Centre are held, with its sober furnishings and delicately decorated ceiling, houses the gallery of the institution's presidents, from the time of the Oporto Agency, the predecessor of the current Centre, with a portrait of the engineer Custódio Guimarães, the Museum's founder, standing out.
The Overseas Room displays countless objects of indigenous African art, with walls decorated with various instruments used by ancestral populations, as well as equipment from the Portuguese Army and guerrilla warfare, ranging from arrows to rifles, including armaments used in the wars of pacification and military campaigns in Africa in the 19th century, the Second World War, and especially the Overseas War, with displays of armaments, camouflage uniforms and even combat rations.
The Centre's library contains classic works on military themes, magazines, monographs and a variety of documentation. The walls of the corridor display miniature pennants from the various military units that took part in the Colonial War. At the top of the stairs is a model of the monument in honour of the combatants of the Great War, erected in Praça de Carlos Alberto in Porto on the initiative of the League.
The "jewel" of the palace is the League Museum, housed in the former ballroom of the Viscount of Pereira Machado. Amongst the 3,000 or so items from the time of the Great War on display are banners, masks, canteens, tankards, helmets, photo albums, decorations, photographs of commanders, as well as uniforms and weapons used on the Front. Each object refers to the combatant who used it, evoking the painful daily life in the trenches.
Among the remarkable pieces in the museum collection, unique and donated by combatants and their families, we highlight the collection of swords and sabres, characteristic elements of the military uniform, today with an honorary and symbolic character, representing command; the remarkable collection of military covers, with a sober cut and discreet colours, used in the uniforms of the 19th and 20th centuries, consisting of a round top and a visor; the Campaign Altar of the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps in Flanders, used by the military chaplain Joaquim Aguiar; the stone and wrought iron lamp with the legend "1914-1918, AOS QUE MORRAMAM PELA PÁTRIA;" the set of mini scripts of Portuguese Army units in Angola; an impressive armoury with weapons from different eras, predominantly from the early 20th century; and the "British Allied" display case, where the uniforms and equipment of the British Army, which was part of the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps, is on show.
The Overseas Room displays countless objects of indigenous African art, with walls decorated with various instruments used by ancestral populations, as well as equipment from the Portuguese Army and guerrilla warfare, ranging from arrows to rifles, including armaments used in the wars of pacification and military campaigns in Africa in the 19th century, the Second World War, and especially the Overseas War, with displays of armaments, camouflage uniforms and even combat rations.
The Centre's library contains classic works on military themes, magazines, monographs and a variety of documentation. The walls of the corridor display miniature pennants from the various military units that took part in the Colonial War. At the top of the stairs is a model of the monument in honour of the combatants of the Great War, erected in Praça de Carlos Alberto in Porto on the initiative of the League.
The "jewel" of the palace is the League Museum, housed in the former ballroom of the Viscount of Pereira Machado. Amongst the 3,000 or so items from the time of the Great War on display are banners, masks, canteens, tankards, helmets, photo albums, decorations, photographs of commanders, as well as uniforms and weapons used on the Front. Each object refers to the combatant who used it, evoking the painful daily life in the trenches.
Among the remarkable pieces in the museum collection, unique and donated by combatants and their families, we highlight the collection of swords and sabres, characteristic elements of the military uniform, today with an honorary and symbolic character, representing command; the remarkable collection of military covers, with a sober cut and discreet colours, used in the uniforms of the 19th and 20th centuries, consisting of a round top and a visor; the Campaign Altar of the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps in Flanders, used by the military chaplain Joaquim Aguiar; the stone and wrought iron lamp with the legend "1914-1918, AOS QUE MORRAMAM PELA PÁTRIA;" the set of mini scripts of Portuguese Army units in Angola; an impressive armoury with weapons from different eras, predominantly from the early 20th century; and the "British Allied" display case, where the uniforms and equipment of the British Army, which was part of the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps, is on show.
