Museu do Caramulo Portugal

The Caramulo Museum is located in the Portuguese village of Caramulo, Tondela county, Viseu district.

The Caramulo Museum opened to the public in March 2004 an exhibition of antique toys and miniature collectibles.

This permanent exhibition has more than 4000 pieces and covers almost a century of the history of toy and collecting, showing the evolution of the toy and miniatures through its various phases and materials.

From the tin to the plastic, from the mass to the iron, the exhibition offers a great variety not only in terms of exposed pieces, as in the origin of the countries and forms of production.

The range of topics covered is very wide, covering areas such as aviation, trains, boats, automobiles and land transport, military and war, action tracks, games and science fiction, not forgetting toys of Portuguese origin.

In addition to the collection, the museum organizes the annual Fair of Miniatures and Old Toys (Exchange, Purchase & Sale), bringing together sellers and collectors from north to south in a place different from the usual and offering a visit to the collections of the Caramulo Museum. This fair takes place on the two floors of the 18th-century cloister of the museum, situated in its center, surrounded by the oldest collection of antique cars in Portugal, and next to the exhibition of miniatures and antique toys.

Two brothers, Abel and João de Lacerda founded in the 1950's, a unusual museum in a small town called Caramulo, situated on a mountain in the center of Portugal with a luxuriant vegetation overlooking an 80 km valley, which is the vastest panoramic view of the country.

Abel de Lacerda, an art lover, has constructed a building based on the most recent concepts of modern museums so as to exhibit an unusual collection of art: 500 objects that range from sculptures, furniture, ceramics and tapestries from the Ancient Egipt era to Picasso.

João de Lacerda, great automobile lover, constructs another building next to the first, intending to exhibit 100 cars and motorbikes that are easily taken in and out of the Museum for maintenance and demonstrations.

With the premature death of Abel de Lacerda in 1957, the Fundação Abel de Lacerda was created – today Fundação Abel e João de Lacerda – the institution that runs the Museu do Caramulo, with both buildings for Art and Automobiles, open to the public all year round. More than one million visitors have come to the Museu do Caramulo in its fifty years of existence.
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