ABSTRACT
The ‘Double Centenary commemorations’, organised by the Portuguese dictatorship in 1940, celebrating both the founding of the nation in 1140 and the restoration of independence in 1640, marked the climax of the New State’s ideological and cultural crusade. The authoritarian regime, constitutionally established by President of the Council António de Oliveira Salazar in 1933, was aiming for a defining event that would glorify its achievements and dissipate any domestic and international concerns with regard to the general social ‘consensus’ achieved by the regime, after the violent repression of all democratic opposition and a complete reorganisation of the State (Torgal, 2009; Domingos and Pereira, 2010; Rosas, 2012). The commemorations mobilised all official political and cultural institutions and were the occasion of numerous cultural, scientific and military events organised throughout the country. These events had a lasting impact on architecture, urban planning and artistic creation (Acciaiuoli, 1998; Ramos do Ó, 1999). In particular, the ambitious ‘Exhibition of the Portuguese World’, staged in Lisbon on the banks of Tagus River, became a significant element in the Portuguese collective memory of the dictatorship, as it contributed to shape and crystallise a particular aesthetical representation of the nation (Corkill and Almeida, 2009).
