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U.Porto Memory

University of Porto Famous Alumni

Adães Bermudes

Adães Bermudes 1864-1948 Architect, painter, lecturer and politician

Arnaldo Redondo Adães Bermudes was born in Santo Ildefonso, in Porto, on 1 October 1864. He was the son of Félix Redondo Adães Bermudes and Cesina Romana Bermudes, a Galician couple living in the city.
He attended the Porto Academy of Fine Arts between 1880 and 1886, where he was taught by José Geraldo da Silva Sardinha; he completed the course at the Lisbon School of Fine Arts.
In 1888, he obtained a scholarship to improve his studies in France with Master Pierre Blondel (1847-1897).
On his return to Portugal in 1894, he started his activity as an architect. In that same year, he lost the competition for the monument to Prince Henry, in Porto, but the quality of his work merited the 2^nd Medal at the exhibition organized by the Grémio Artístico de Lisboa.

During his professional activity, he held several posts as a public servant. He was assistant officer in the Direcção-Geral de Instrução Pública (1899), in charge of the projects for the construction of schools, director of the Construções Escolares da Direcção-Geral do Ministério do Reino (1901-1906) [Directorate General of the Ministry of the Kingdom], secretary to the Comissão de Estudo das Construções nas Regiões Sísmicas (1909) [a committee responsible for analysing constructions in seismic areas], a member of the Conselho de Arte e Arqueologia (1911) [Art and Archaeology Council], a member of the Conselho Superior de Instrução Pública (1911) [Higher Council of Public Education], secretary to the Comissão dos Monumentos Nacionais (1911) [Commission for National Monuments], head of the 3.ª Repartição da Direcção-Geral de Belas-Artes do Ministério da Instrução Pública (1926) [an office belonging to the Directorate General for Fine Arts], and the director of National Monuments, at the Ministry of Commerce and Communications (1929-1933).

Between 1917 and 1933, alongside the artistic activities and his activity in the public service, he taught Construction and Materials Resistance, Descriptive Geometry and Perspective at the Lisbon School of Fine Arts, he took part in the political life in the capital (he was even the temporary president of the Lisbon City Hall and an independent senator in the 1918-1919 government), he collaborated in specialized periodical publications ("Anuário da Sociedade dos Arquitectos Portugueses, "A Construção", "Boletim da Real Associação dos Arquitectos Civis e Arqueólogos Portugueses" and "Arquitectura Portuguesa"), he participated in congresses and committees representing the Portuguese architects (at the 6^th, 7^th, 8^th and 9^th international architects' congresses - in Madrid (1904), in London (1906), in Vienna (1908) and in Rome (1911) - and he was a member of several architects and engineers associations, for example, Real Associação dos Arquitectos Civis e Arqueólogos Portugueses, the Sociedade dos Arquitectos Portugueses, Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes, the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Associação dos Engenheiros Civis Portugueses, as well as of the Sociedade dos Arquitectos da Argentina e do Uruguai [in Argentina and Uruguay].

His eclectic architecture work mixes Manueline and Baroque style references with Art Nouveau and Modern Design, for example: the model-project for the construction of 184 schools (1902-1912); the Santa Cruz Primary School, in Coimbra (1905-1907); the Instituto Superior de Agronomia de Lisboa [Agronomy Institute, in Lisbon], in Tapada da Ajuda (1910); the Escola Normal de Lisboa, in Benfica (1913), nowadays the Escola Superior de Educação de Lisboa [Higher Institute of Education]; the hospitals in Covilhã and Oleiros; the Bank of Portugal branch offices in Coimbra, Bragança, Viseu, Faro, Évora and Vila Real; the jail houses in Anadia and Sintra; the churches in Espinho and Amorim; the Hotel Astória, in Coimbra; the Cemetery of Alto de S. João and the small palace of the Conde de Agrolongo, in Lisbon.

Adães Bermudes also participated in restoration and conservation projects of emblematic national monuments, for instance the palaces in Mafra, Sintra and Queluz, the church of the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos and the National Museum of Ancient Art, in Lisbon. He was responsible for the winning project for the erection of the Monument to the Marquis of Pombal in Lisbon, together with António C. Abreu and the sculptor Francisco dos Santos.

He won the Valmor and Municipal Architecture Award in 1908, awarded for the first time to a commercial building, in Almirante Reis Avenue, and an Honourable Mention (1909), in the same competition, for a small palace in Sacramento Street, belonging to Conde de Agrolongo. In 1900, he received an award at the Paris Universal Exhibition.

He married Albertina Bermudes and had a son - Jorge - who followed in his father's footsteps.

Adães Bermudes was an architect and a well-learned republican mason. He died on 18 February 1948, in Paiões, Sintra.
(Universidade Digital / Gestão de Informação, 2010)