A Museum of the Portuguese Language in Portugal

Portuguese is today one of the great global languages, spoken by more than 260 million people across five continents. It is a shared heritage of countries and cultures, a tool of identity, and a vehicle of literary, scientific, and artistic creation. Yet in Portugal, the motherland of this language, there is still no museum space entirely dedicated to celebrating it.

Brazil, in São Paulo, was a pioneer in creating the Museum of the Portuguese Language, inaugurated in 2006 in the Estação da Luz building. A fire nearly destroyed it in 2015, but the response was firm: the museum was rebuilt and reopened in 2021, modernized and interactive, projecting itself as a place of encounter, memory, and future for all Portuguese speakers.

In Portugal, there are institutions that touch upon the dimension of the language. The Casa Fernando Pessoa in Lisbon highlights literature and the plurality of poetic voices. The José Saramago Foundation opens itself to debate on culture and the shared language. In Miranda do Douro, the Museum of the Mirandese Language preserves and promotes Portugal’s second official language. All these initiatives are of great merit, but none constitutes a true national museum of the Portuguese language.

It is time for Portugal to take on this mission. A Museum of the Portuguese Language in Lisbon — or in another city of strong cultural and academic tradition — would not only be a gesture of historical recognition, but also a platform for dialogue with the Lusophone world. It could integrate exhibitions on the historical evolution of the language, its variants around the globe, the influence of Arabic, African, and Amerindian languages, the great literary works, music, popular orality, as well as interactive resources showcasing the vitality of the language today.

It would be a museum for students and researchers, but also for tourists and curious citizens. A meeting place where Portuguese would present itself to the world with the dignity of universal intangible heritage.

Portugal, as the cradle of the language, cannot lag behind. If São Paulo has already shown us the way, it is now up to Lisbon — and to the whole country — to host the home that the language which unites us still lacks.

Paulo Freitas do Amaral - Professor, Historian and Author