The Vasco da Gama Aquarium, located in Dafundo, in the municipality of Oeiras, has been classified as a Monument of Public Interest, according to an order published today in the Diário da República.
In the decree – signed on November 10 by the Secretary of State for Culture, Isabel Cordeiro – the classification of the Vasco da Gama Aquarium, including the garden, is justified by its “interest as a remarkable testimony to historical experiences and facts”, along with its “aesthetic, technical and material value” and its “architectural and urban design”.
The importance for historical and scientific research and for collective memory was also a factor in responding positively to the classification proposal presented by the Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage.
The Vasco da Gama Aquarium, located by the River Tagus in the district of Lisbon, is one of the oldest public aquariums in the world. It was designed as part of the celebrations for the IV Centenary of the Discovery of the Maritime Route to India and inaugurated on May 20, 1898, in the presence of King Carlos I.
The architectural design and construction was carried out by the firm Vieillard&Touzet, under the technical supervision of the engineer Albert Girard, a naturalist and Charles I’s main scientific collaborator.
In 1901, it was handed over to the Portuguese Navy for management.
In 1940, as a result of the construction of the Lisbon-Cascais promenade, the building had about a third of its surface amputated, but two decades later work began on extending and restoring it.
The aquarium is linked to the beginning of the promotion of aquatic life in Portugal, having welcomed the legacy of the collection of the D. Carlos I Oceanographic Museum. Carlos I Oceanographic Museum in 1935.
