The centre opens on 23 October 2026, in the afternoon, in the former Escola Cantina Salazar at Vimieiro, Santa Comba Dão, as RTP and the council's timing indicate.
PÚBLICO counts more than 30 years of controversy and Expresso more than two decades, with earlier protests backed by parties, antifascist groups and petitions signed by thousands.
The house where Salazar was born on 28 April 1889 lies less than 100 metres from the school and remains closed, according to PÚBLICO.
The Estado Novo: Regime and Resistance interpretive centre will open on 23 October 2026, in the afternoon, in the former Escola Cantina Salazar at Vimieiro, a village in the municipality of Santa Comba Dão. The school was built in the 1940s during the Estado Novo regime and still carries Salazar's name, inscribed in granite on its exterior. It stands less than 100 metres from the house where António de Oliveira Salazar was born on 28 April 1889, along the EN 2 national road. That house will remain closed, because PÚBLICO reports it is still considered too toxic to reopen. Vimieiro has about 800 residents, and Salazar has been buried in its cemetery since 1970.
The press measures the controversy differently: PÚBLICO counts more than 30 years of polemic, while Expresso dates the debate to more than two decades ago. Earlier protests drew in political parties, antifascist organisations, former political prisoners of the dictatorship and petitions signed by thousands of citizens. PÚBLICO says the mobilisation against the current project is far smaller than those earlier waves. The Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) has said the new facility will give 'greater centrality' to the 'greatest exponent of the fascist regime', a reference to Salazar. RTP reports that several mayors had pursued the idea before the present council took it up.
Inês Matos, mayor of Santa Comba Dão, was elected at the last local elections for the PSD/IL coalition. Speaking to Lusa, she said political will had to prevail over the noise surrounding the project, which she argued had made the council reflect before acting. The works were carried out by municipal staff through direct administration, a process RTP says required a very large effort from council employees. Scientific coordination comes from the Efémora association, which Pacheco Pereira founded. The mayor put the council's central message plainly:
“We do not want any place of worship.”
She also rejected both extremes, saying the centre would be neither a museum to Salazar nor a space that disparages him:
“We do not want a museum to Salazar, but nor do we want a space that speaks badly of the main figure.”
Luís Nunes, the council's vice-president, told Observador that the centre is meant for study rather than tribute. The opening exhibition covers censorship in music, literature and other areas of the regime, and shows a censored work next to the censor's document giving the grounds for the cut. A classroom in period style will hold a photograph of Salazar and of the President of the Republic, along with a crucifix, as was customary at the time. The rest of the space will use materials from the Efémora archive. The programme includes regular thematic exhibitions, debates, round tables and conferences, a thematic library with a reading area, and a permanent room with works by David Oliveira, a self-taught artist.
Expresso found the village of Vimieiro deserted during its visit, with fresh flowers on Salazar's grave and a GNR patrol car passing the centre. The newspaper reports that the village expects visitors, while critics fear pilgrimages to the site. The centre will open in the former school, and the birth house a few metres away will stay shut.
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The Estado Novo: Regime and Resistance centre takes over a former school in Vimieiro, less than 100 metres from Salazar's birthplace, while the birth house itself stays closed.
AI text based on reports by PÚBLICO, Observador, Jornal Expresso and other publishers. Published .