MAFRA MUSEUM (1911-1938). THE FIRST CREATED BY THE REPUBLIC

The participants in the International Tourism Congress held in Lisbon in 1911 divided their time between working sessions and excursions to various parts of the country.

The visit to Mafra was scheduled for 14 May of that year. A dignified reception was prepared locally - which included, among other initiatives, an agricultural parade, festivals and popular festivities - by a committee expressly set up and chaired by Dr Carlos Galrão.

The visitors, who had left Praça dos Restauradores two hours earlier, arrived in Mafra at around 11.20 a.m. to be greeted by a lot of firecrackers and an uncomfortable downpour that irremediably disrupted the programme (advertised on a flyer that had been distributed profusely), which had to be partially cancelled.

After a quick visit to the Basilica, they were taken to the Elliptical Room, where lunch would be served to 93 guests by the Castro Hotel.

During the lunch, which was very lively, the Banda de Infantaria I played and, at the end, a French lady and a Spanish lady went around the table to make a collection in favour of the poor of Mafra, which brought in 23$370 reis. As they left the lunch table, from the tribune above it, a group of ladies from the town threw many flowers at the delegates, a kindness that "endeared them to me".

The congressmen were then able to take a closer look at the building, finally heading for the Palace, where they had the opportunity to inaugurate the Museum of Decorative Arts, ten consecutive rooms in the west wing, bringing together almost all of the sacred and profane artefacts that had been stored there to date. The event, presided over by the minister of finance at the time, brought to fruition a project by José Relvas, realised by José Queiroz in a record forty days, as he himself confesses in the small brochure published on the occasion (Museu de Mafra - inauguração).