João Soares Museum-House

The João Soares Museum-House is a branch of the Mário Soares and Maria Barroso Foundation, located in Leiria, at Cortes.

Based, since 1996, at a building donated by the Soares Family, the João Soares Museum-House develops activities in the fields of culture and education, with a view to promoting a historical, civic and democratic culture inspired by the life pathways of João Lopes Soares, Mário Soares and Maria Barroso.

Special reference should be made to the long-duration exhibition “Portugal’s Twentieth Century: the Pathways of Democracy – João Soares / Mário Soares”, focused on Portuguese Contemporary History; photographs, posters and documents illustrate the key moments of the twentieth century, based on the biographies of João Lopes Soares and Mário Soares. The Museum-House also organizes temporary exhibitions associated with its mission

The João Soares Museum-House regularly develops activities in the fields of education and relationship with communities, especially in the region of Leiria.

The educational Programme is mainly targeted at the schooling community and the families, providing a widely varied offer of activities, such as guided visits, pedagogic workshops, actions of book promotion and reading, leisure actions and shows. It also takes initiatives aimed at promoting active healthy ageing and well-being, fostering the empowerment and personal development of senior citizens.

The Museum-House is the custodian of a collection of museum artefacts, with special reference to the offers made by Mário Soares throughout his public life, especially when he was Prime Minister and President of the Republic. The collection includes works of art, honorary decorations and the academic outfits of Mário Soares and Maria Barroso.

The Museum-House also has the João Lopes Soares Library, with more than 25,000 titles in its bibliographical catalogue, including works of general reference, works by national and foreign authors, a collection of books listed on the National Reading Plan and works by authors from the region of Leiria.

The Museum-House has various spaces for exhibitions, a library, an auditorium, a technical reserve, working spaces, residential apartments and a garden designed by Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles. In this garden there is an open-air amphitheatre, and we may see the car in which Mário Soares travelled the country during the electoral campaigns after the 25 April 1974.