Portugal dos Pequenitos

The Portugal dos Pequenitos is a Miniature park in the civil parish of Santa Clara e Castelo Viegas, in the municipality of Coimbra, in the Portuguese district of Coimbra. The park consists of diminutive versions of Portuguese houses and monuments, and has pavilions dedicated to the former Portuguese colonies.HistoryThe construction of the park began in 1938, an initiative of professor Bissaya Barreto, following a project developed by architect Cassiano Branco. The original building was inspired by Odeon theatre in Porto. The first phase of the project occurred between 1938 and 1940, which involved the recreation of group of structures identified as typical homes, chapels, mills and pillories located of the Trás-os-Montes and Minho region. The first phase was inaugurated on 8 June 1940.The beginning of the section, known as the monuments area began in the middle of the century, an area that illustrated many of the country's monuments and heritage sites.At the end of the 1950s, the third phase was concluded. This section included pavilions dedicated to reconstitute artefacts and symbolic structures associated with the overseas provinces at the time. In addition to buildings and motifs that included representations from Portuguese Africa, Brazil, Macau, India and East Timor, the area was circled by native flora, as well sa buildings for the Azores and Madeira.From 1959, the site was integrated into the heritage and patrimony of the Bissaya Barreto Foundation.Beginning in December 2003, a new space was open to act as visitor center for activities and pedagogical events, along with a sundial, both work designed by architect João Paulo Revez Conceição. By 2007, the site had a maximum number of visitors, totally 331,000 visitors.