The former laundry facility of Cabeça Gorda has been transformed into a new space dedicated to “celebrating the right to play,” featuring “toys from past eras, relics with soul, and stories waiting to be discovered,” according to a statement from the Beja City Council.
This project, a collaboration between the local council of Cabeça Gorda, the municipality, and collector Rogério Fialho, who has accumulated a vast collection of toys over decades, has found an ideal home.
The museum space takes place in the renovated laundry of the parish, “now fully restored and adapted to house a unique exhibition of toys from different times.”
“The old laundry, once a community gathering place, now gains new life, serving as a point of sharing and affection across generations,” emphasized the city council.
The “Espaço Museológico da Brincadeira” exhibits “between 2,000 to 3,000” toys from Rogério Fialho’s collection, which he describes as “a journey to the past.”
In this journey, said Rogério Fialho today, youngsters can “see what toys their parents or grandparents played with and enjoy the entire space.”
Featuring 18 showcases with toys made of wood, tin, and plastic, the museum also offers visitors a playing area, a kiosk with school supplies, a toy store, a space for temporary exhibitions, and a “small library” with children’s books.
“We have, chronologically, wooden toys, fair dolls, metal toys from various factories in Portugal, dating from 1940 to 1980,” he explained.
Also on display are “foreign toys, such as ‘Barbie’, ‘Aquaman’, or ‘Smurfs’, as well as Japanese toys and those from the former German Democratic Republic, offering a wide array for all tastes and preferences,” described the collector.
Nevertheless, for Rogério Fialho, there is a part of the collection he particularly cherishes, which thus receives a special highlight in the space.
“We have a collection of toys from a factory in Algarve, known as Plásticos Aliança Farense (IPAF), which has closed, but they produced very colorful and interesting toys,” he noted.
Additionally, the space will host workshops for constructing recyclable toys, such as paper kites or wire cars.
According to Rogério Fialho, the museum will be a “vibrant place” and “an intergenerational meeting point.”
“Older visitors will certainly be moved, as there are toys that remind them of their youth, and the younger ones will see how people played 20, 30, 40, and 50 years ago with the toys that existed,” he said.
Rogério Fialho also emphasized that the space “will not have ‘Wi-Fi’,” because “it is meant for playing and viewing the toys, not for gaming or being glued to a mobile phone.”
The inauguration is scheduled for 5:00 PM on Saturday, with regular opening hours on Wednesdays and on the first and third weekends of each month. There is also the possibility of scheduling guided tours outside the designated days if necessary.
The first temporary exhibition displayed in the space is dedicated to “local artisans,” featuring toys crafted by artisans from the region, specifically from Cabeça Gorda and Beringel, another parish in the Beja municipality.
“Generally, these will be toys made of clay, wire, cork, wood, crafted by people from our region, but we also have toys from abroad, more precisely from Cape Verde,” he explained.
