In 1995, we gathered efforts and
determination to build a project which
was at that time a pioneering but
also a risky one: the opening of a
place exclusively dedicated to the
promotion of the Portuguese Folk Art.

Travelling all over the country,
from the North to the South, visiting
hidden villages, we have been able
to meet dozens and dozens of folk artists.
Not only the famous ones,
but also those who have never left their villages and were completely unknown.

It is this branch of the Portuguese culture
– the Folk Art –
that is displayed with dignity in
“Santos Ofícios”, the only place in Lisbon that insists on keeping, in this area,
a standard of rigour intimately
tied to the concept of “tradition”.