Inaugurated on the 3rd of March 2001, Travassos’ Gold Museum is the embodiment of an intention to distinguish and dignify handcrafted Portuguese goldsmithery.

 

Travassos has been chosen as the ideal location for the Gold museum given the fact that a number of workshops are still active, and architectonic memories of many others abound. Besides the creation of the historical place and the rehabilitation of some old workshops, the Museum is also an active institution. It serves the local community and helps to increase and reveal the traditional knowledge and values.

 

The idea of a museum had been discussed since the 1980’s yet the project only entered its most active phase after 1993. The museum is the offspring of a local goldsmith’s passion for the art, and presents us a with a vast collection of gold objects, tools, furniture, and bibliography, patiently collected by Francisco de Carvalho e Sousa for more than 50 years. This privately held museum is installed in a former goldsmith’s workshop, belonging to Casa de Alfena (a manor house now converted to receive guests). In the same area there are three other workshops (two of them no longer in use), the earliest of them dating back to 1742.

 

The idea to create a Gold Museum in Travassos can be dated to the 1980’s and it embodies the desire of a local goldsmith to reflect and promote the identity of a community linked for generations to the craftsmanship of gold artefacts.