“Plano dos Centenários”: Contribution of the Lisbon Municipal Archives documentation to a case study

Abstract

The Plano dos Centenários (Centenary Plan) was one of the largest school building initiatives promoted by the Estado Novo, with the aim of combating illiteracy, which had  plagued Portugal since the nineteenth century. In 1934,  after decades of political instability, discontinued reforms  and insufficient resources, the government sought to  organise a national school charter that would identify the  needs, location and capacity of future primary schools.  However, the process was slow to progress due to constant  fluctuations in the programme’s pedagogical orientation  and the technical and financial complexity of organising the  school network, factors that successively delayed the  approval of the initial plan. The consolidation of this effort  culminated in 1940 with the definition of a national plan  coordinated between the Ministry of National Education  and the local authorities, who were responsible for  financing half of the cost of the respective works, scheduled to begin in 1941. In Lisbon, the Municipal Council fully  embraced the project, creating a technical commission to  plan the construction and renovation of school groups. Between 1952 and 1953, several buildings were constructed, enlarged and planned, with the involvement of renowned  architects in their design, while significant areas of land and municipal funds were provided for their construction. The  documentation produced at the time, which is now  preserved in the Lisbon Municipal Archive, is the subject of  this Documenta and constitutes an essential source for  understanding that plan devised for the modernisation of  primary education in the municipality.