ABSTRACT
The role of the building expert has historically been filled by a person with building training, such as a builder (master-mason or carpenter), an architect or an engineer. However, in the historical Portuguese building world, there were some agents acting as building experts who had no formal construction skills or building practice as was the case of the vedor of works in the city of Lisbon. His expertise was the administration of building contracts for the city’s public works. The aim of this study is, therefore, to bring to light the now extinct office of the city of Lisbon vedor of works, focusing both on the duties and on the men.
