This February, the “Entail of the Month” initiative presents the manor of Quinta da Cerca, in Almada, established by João Lopes Figueira in 1610.

On the outskirts of the medieval wall built to defend the city of Almada, in its oldest section, there is a plot of land where, since the 16th century, a manor house has stood: Quinta da Cerca, which was transformed into the Contemporary Art Centre since 1993, under the supervision Almada City Council.

The first reference to the property that we know of dates back to 1582, a donation letter in which João Lobo, the administrator of Almada’s Misericórdia charitable institution, transfers along with any other good, the land on Cerca to his nephew, João Lopes Figueira, in the absence of any direct descendants.

João Lopes Figueira was the resident in the Quinta da Cerca Manor House, as stated in his will in 1610, where he also refers to its ownership in “the memory of my grandparents and uncles who built it”, indicating its existence stretches further back in time. The Quinta‘s reputation is definitively and solemnly reinforced in João Lopes Figueira’s will, with clear and explicit mention of the visit and stay of the “kings of this kingdom” on the Cerca estate.

A meeting point between History, Art and Heritage, Casa da Cerca maintains its original setting. Today, the Contemporary Art Centre also combines science and ecology in its botanical garden, O Chão das Artes, in an effort to preserve species, while continuing to enjoy the landscape that was once filled with the orchards of its first owners.

To find out more details about this entail, go to this page with all the Entail of the Month information. Here, you may also find out about the other entails made available in the meantime, at: https://www.vinculum.fcsh.unl.pt/entail-of-the-month

You can also contribute to this initiative by making suggestions for future entails of the month and any details you may be able to provide. To this end, please contact the project at: vinculum@fcsh.unl.pt.

The VINCULUM project is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) and led by Maria de Lurdes Rosa, Professor of NOVA FCSH and researcher at the Institute of Medieval Studies, awarded the first ERC Consolidator Grant to a Portuguese researcher in the field of History.