PORTUGAL
OLIVE OIL
A TASTE OF EUROPE
Supported by the Culture Program of the European Union, nine countries
are involved in the project “A Taste of Europe”, www.atasteofeurope.eu,
through the following museums: Swedish Museum of Work, Slovenian
Technical Museum, Czech Republic National Museum of Agriculture,
Estonian National Museum, Finnish Labour Museum Werstas,
Museum of Hungarian Agriculture, Scottish Fisheries Museum,
Danish Workers’ Museum and the Portuguese Museum of Portimão.
Built around 9 food products (milk, corn, cereals, bread, olive oil, fish, pig,
potato, beer and honey) chosen by each museum, the A taste of Europe
exhibition enhances differences and similarities on each country’s eating
habits, trying to stimulate knowledge and reflection on food, heritage,
environment, production and daily consumption, especially among young
Europeans.
OLIVE OIL
In Portugal, the Museum of Portimão chose olive oil, presenting the exhibition
“Olive oil – Tasty know-hows”, on which is presented this product’s key role on
Mediterranean culture and diet, its many properties and appliances on a daily use
basis, like lighting, food, health, hygiene, medicine, body care, all this based on the
its exceptional quality as vegetable fat.
Regarding the exhibition sections, they portray the evolution from the traditional
olive groves to the new ones, planted on a more intensive way, the millennial path
from the presses made of tree trunks to the most modern extraction methods.
You can also see the changes that occurred on olive oil trading, like the door-todoor salesmen, buying it in groceries where the clients would chose the quantity
they wanted, or nowadays packed olive oil, that you can see on a big supermarket
or, in some cases, on exquisite gourmet shops.
The “Olive oil salesman cart”, that passed by the streets of Portimão, part of the
assets of the former Bia Flóro grocery store (where you can see a manual olive oil
pump), Fialho’s factory “spider” cart on which was transported the olive oil to its
canned fish, and the model of the modern press at Oliveira da Serra’s Herdade do
Marmelo are, among others for the first time displayed, an important array of our
cultural heritage and a contemporary glance on the historical relationship between
memory, present and vitality in the olive oil’s universe.
Production
Câmara Municipal de Portimão
Museu de Portimão
Director
José Gameiro
Museography
Miguel Gil
Research
Ana Alexandre
Ana Ramos
António Pereira
Isabel Soares
José Gameiro
Pedro Branco
Design
José Gameiro
Rui Nicolau
Conservation
Andreia Machado
Lisete Duarte
Maria João Encarnação
Paula Sousa
Tiago Alfarroba
Vasco Dinis
Vitor Novais
Logistics
Ana Zeferino
João Luís
Departamento de Obras Serviços Gerais (DOSG)
Educational Services
Nuno Silva
Paula Vicente
Rossana Costa
Reception
Ana Patrício
João Rosado
Mauro Pereira
Vera Santos
Documental Support
Aurora Marreiro
Elsa Andrade
Gabriela Rosa
Gisela Gameiro
Helena Bonito
Inventory
Isolete Vicência
Lurdes Pacheco
Secretariat
Cláudia Inácio
Fátima Bravo
Acknowledgments
Biblioteca Municipal de Santarém
Body Shop
Casa do Azeite
Canon CPS Portugal
Centro Cultural Raiano/Município Idanha-a-Nova
Continente
Cooperativa Agrícola de Moura e Barrancos
Cooperativa Agrícola dos Produtores de Azeite de St.ª Catarina de Fonte do Bispo
Direcção Regional de Agricultura do Algarve
Flor do Sol
Grupo Sovena/Oliveira da Serra
Lagar Monterosa/Detlev Von Rosen
Município de Moura
Museu Municipal de Arqueologia de Silves
Museu Municipal de Faro
Museu Municipal de Tavira
Museu Nacional de Etnologia
Museu do Trajo de S. Brás de Alportel
Papa Figo- Sabonetes de Azeite
Quinta dos Avós
Albertina Marques
Alfredo Santos
Ana Amaral
António Oliveira
Armando Pipão
Brites Silva
Carlos Oliveira
Carlos Rico
David Cristina
Edite Tavares
Filipe Moreira
Firmina Soares
Gisela Lima
João Reis
João Pacheco
Joaquim de Sousa
José Correia
José Furtado
José Silva
Luís Reis
Manuel dos Santos
Manuel Lourenço
Manuel Mendonça
Maria Carvalheira
Maria Faustino
Maria Guerreiro
Maria Inês Mansinho
Maria Jesus
Maria Soares
Miguel Bigodinho
Paulo Longo
Renato Mendes
Vitorino Soares
Photo credits
António Abrunhosa
Frederico Van Zeller
Jorge Godinho
José Gameiro
Nuno Correia
Nuno Silva
Rui Nicolau
Rui Vasco
Valter Vinagre
Virgílio Moreira