It is located in Praça da República, City of Viana do Castelo, North of Portugal
The Costume Museum of Viana do Castelo, located in the historic center of the city, the building of the former Bank of Portugal has housed the Costume Museum since 2004, which showcases the ethnographic richness of traditional Viana do Castelo costumes.
The exhibits on display include the utensils used for the artisanal manufacture of clothing items, in addition to the permanent exhibitions “Wool and linen in the Alto Minho costume”, “Traje à Vianesa” and “Oficina do Ouro”.
The Costume Museum holds numerous temporary exhibitions focusing on Vianenses costume and ethnography.
The Viana do Castelo Costume Museum values research, conservation and exhibitions, promoting the representative assets of nature and the upper Minho man with the mission of studying popular culture and making it known to younger people.
The Viana do Castelo Costume Museum was created in 1997, and assumed the mission of studying and disseminating Viana do Castelo's identity and ethnographic heritage through its maximum exponent, the Viana style costume.
The Viana style costume is characterized by being a feminine, popular, rural costume, used in the villages around Viana do Castelo, which acquired characteristics that individualize it and make it immediately identifiable, and this costume was used from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century.
Throughout the 20th century, and coinciding with the moment in which it began to cease to be used and lose its role in socio-cultural life, the costume became the object of the attention of scholars who fought to maintain its daily use.
The performative practices that resulted in folklore groups, and their elevation to the category of main attraction of the city's festivities in honor of the Lady of Agony and in this way the costume maintained its characteristics, identity and preservation.
Viana's costume is even used in situations that are out of context with its original use (Carnival costume, exotic clothing used by professional photographers, propaganda images and commercial advertising).
These uses, far removed from the original use, helped to give new meanings to the costume: proximity to the traditional world and rurality, joy and creativity, the beneficial effect of spreading and making the image of the costume immediately recognized throughout the country.
The creation of a museum dedicated to Viennese ethnography (costume) to publicize the creativity of girls from the region in making their costumes has been an aspiration of the Viennese since the beginning of the 20th century and scholars such as Cláudio Basto, Abel Viana, Afonso do Paço, Manuel Couto Viana, Conde de Aurora, José Rosa de Araújo, Maria Emília de Vasconcelos, Amadeu Costa and Benjamim Pereira, among many, fought for it. others.
Initially, the supervision of the Museum was handed over to the Senhora d’Agonia Festival Committee and it functioned as a temporary exhibition gallery, with costume exhibitions organized by Amadeu Costa.
The City Council took over its supervision in 2000, with the placement of a senior technician responsible for the space, and began to outline the programmatic lines that led to the definition of the museum's mission and objectives that served as the basis for the application to the Portuguese Museum Network.
The New Museum was assigned the functions of preserving, studying and disseminating elements related to traditional ways of life and the Alto Minho cultural identity.
As the popular rural female costume used in the villages around the city of Viana do Castelo is commonly known as “Traje à Vianesa” or “à Lavradeira”, the best-known and celebrated element of Minho ethnography was the reason for giving the name to this Museum.
The museum also plays a role in communicating and enhancing the informative value of the costume, which is all the more important as it is always present in promoting the city and the region, and it is not possible nowadays to find it in its “natural environment” (except in special situations such as parties, pilgrimages and folklore festivals).
In 2004, the Museum presented its first permanent exhibition entitled “Lã e o Linho no Traje do Alto Minho”, curated by Benjamim Pereira.
In 2007, the building underwent major works to adapt it to museum functions, with the creation of spaces for exhibitions, reserves, educational services, gatherings and administration, which considerably improved the conditions for carrying out museum functions.
The museum also developed a set of five thematic museum centers spread across the rural parishes of the municipality: in Outeiro dedicated “to bread”, in São Lourenço da Montaria “to water mills”, in Carreço “to windmills” and to “agro-maritime activities” in Castelo de Neiva harvesting sargassum.
Throughout this period it presented more than a hundred temporary exhibitions and five long-term exhibitions, and until 2020 the museum was visited by more than 500 thousand people, with a large portion of this number made up of school visits by students who thus get to know better the costume whose image they recognize from their daily lives.
The exhibits on display include the utensils used for the artisanal manufacture of clothing items, in addition to the permanent exhibitions “Wool and linen in the Alto Minho costume”, “Traje à Vianesa” and “Oficina do Ouro”.
The Costume Museum holds numerous temporary exhibitions focusing on Vianenses costume and ethnography.
The Viana do Castelo Costume Museum values research, conservation and exhibitions, promoting the representative assets of nature and the upper Minho man with the mission of studying popular culture and making it known to younger people.
The Viana do Castelo Costume Museum was created in 1997, and assumed the mission of studying and disseminating Viana do Castelo's identity and ethnographic heritage through its maximum exponent, the Viana style costume.
The Viana style costume is characterized by being a feminine, popular, rural costume, used in the villages around Viana do Castelo, which acquired characteristics that individualize it and make it immediately identifiable, and this costume was used from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century.
Throughout the 20th century, and coinciding with the moment in which it began to cease to be used and lose its role in socio-cultural life, the costume became the object of the attention of scholars who fought to maintain its daily use.
The performative practices that resulted in folklore groups, and their elevation to the category of main attraction of the city's festivities in honor of the Lady of Agony and in this way the costume maintained its characteristics, identity and preservation.
Viana's costume is even used in situations that are out of context with its original use (Carnival costume, exotic clothing used by professional photographers, propaganda images and commercial advertising).
These uses, far removed from the original use, helped to give new meanings to the costume: proximity to the traditional world and rurality, joy and creativity, the beneficial effect of spreading and making the image of the costume immediately recognized throughout the country.
The creation of a museum dedicated to Viennese ethnography (costume) to publicize the creativity of girls from the region in making their costumes has been an aspiration of the Viennese since the beginning of the 20th century and scholars such as Cláudio Basto, Abel Viana, Afonso do Paço, Manuel Couto Viana, Conde de Aurora, José Rosa de Araújo, Maria Emília de Vasconcelos, Amadeu Costa and Benjamim Pereira, among many, fought for it. others.
Initially, the supervision of the Museum was handed over to the Senhora d’Agonia Festival Committee and it functioned as a temporary exhibition gallery, with costume exhibitions organized by Amadeu Costa.
The City Council took over its supervision in 2000, with the placement of a senior technician responsible for the space, and began to outline the programmatic lines that led to the definition of the museum's mission and objectives that served as the basis for the application to the Portuguese Museum Network.
The New Museum was assigned the functions of preserving, studying and disseminating elements related to traditional ways of life and the Alto Minho cultural identity.
As the popular rural female costume used in the villages around the city of Viana do Castelo is commonly known as “Traje à Vianesa” or “à Lavradeira”, the best-known and celebrated element of Minho ethnography was the reason for giving the name to this Museum.
The museum also plays a role in communicating and enhancing the informative value of the costume, which is all the more important as it is always present in promoting the city and the region, and it is not possible nowadays to find it in its “natural environment” (except in special situations such as parties, pilgrimages and folklore festivals).
In 2004, the Museum presented its first permanent exhibition entitled “Lã e o Linho no Traje do Alto Minho”, curated by Benjamim Pereira.
In 2007, the building underwent major works to adapt it to museum functions, with the creation of spaces for exhibitions, reserves, educational services, gatherings and administration, which considerably improved the conditions for carrying out museum functions.
The museum also developed a set of five thematic museum centers spread across the rural parishes of the municipality: in Outeiro dedicated “to bread”, in São Lourenço da Montaria “to water mills”, in Carreço “to windmills” and to “agro-maritime activities” in Castelo de Neiva harvesting sargassum.
Throughout this period it presented more than a hundred temporary exhibitions and five long-term exhibitions, and until 2020 the museum was visited by more than 500 thousand people, with a large portion of this number made up of school visits by students who thus get to know better the costume whose image they recognize from their daily lives.
