Versão portuguesa aqui.

GPS 38.68388542981731, -9.159142182354696

Casa da Cerca or Palácio da Cerca is a historic palace located in Almada, in the current parish of Almada, Cova da Piedade, Pragal and Cacilhas, in the municipality of Almada.

The property, house and adjacent land, was acquired by the City Council in 1988. Recovered and adapted to the exhibition purposes for which it was intended, with a program outlined by its first director, the painter Rogério Ribeiro, it opened to the public in 1993, as Casa da Cerca - Center for Contemporary Art. The first exhibition focused on a core of the work of Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso.

Casa da Cerca has been classified as a Property of Public Interest since 1996.

Casa da Cerca - Center for Contemporary Art Casa da Cerca - Center for Contemporary Art is a research and dissemination center for contemporary art, with particular focus on the study of Drawing, located in Almada. The dissemination of contemporary Design, in all its aspects, has since then been its main function.

Exhibitions and Research Since the beginning of its history, Casa da Cerca – Centro de Arte Contemporânea has maintained among its objectives the research and wide dissemination of the relevance of Drawing, in history, with particular focus on the contemporary period. Over twenty-one years of activity, Casa da Cerca has already offered a significant diversity of exhibition proposals, including individual (105, to date), collective and thematic (39) exhibitions, having publicized the work of several hundred artists. national and foreign. To get to know these exhibitions, attend conferences, debates and free courses, and also to visit the garden and attend the annual parties and other cultural events, around 220,000 visitors passed through the House, of which around 32,000 were students, from all levels of education. , and from all over the country (and even some foreigners, in cooperation programs) who participated in pedagogical activities (guided visits and/or workshops).

Master Rogério Ribeiro Documentation and Research Center The creation of the embryonic nucleus of the current Documentation Center specialized in Drawing and contemporary Portuguese artists (and aimed at researchers) had as a corollary its opening to the public in 2008. a policy of exchanges and donations of artists' personal archives and libraries, the Mestre Rogério Ribeiro Documentation and Research Center already has 15,300 titles.

The Educational Service Formally organized in 1997, the Educational Service (SE) has a very comprehensive project, offering a pedagogical/playful component, allowing young people to have their first contact with plastic activities of a creative nature. From 1998 onwards, the SE began to propose programs related to the exhibitions, offering proposals for visitors from 3 years old and with no other age limit.

Communication Casa da Cerca has a website and a newsletter, which already has thousands of subscribers. In addition, every year since 2009, a House and Gardens Party has been held annually, a full day of recreational and cultural activities (Crafts and Design market, Picnic, Book blanket, Plastic workshops for all ages, guided visits to exhibitions patents and the garden, music, theater, relaxing massages, Yoga, Tai-chi, etc.), which has contributed in a very effective way to publicize the institution.

The Chão das Artes – Botanical Garden In June 2001, the Chão das Artes – Botanical Garden was inaugurated. A pioneering initiative in the specificity of articulating the scientific and artistic aspects, it was implemented in a project inspired by the traditional Portuguese garden of a recreational farm (origin of Casa da Cerca) which, in addition to the greenhouse and open-air amphitheater, is organized into six structuring areas, in which plants grow whose components originate materials used in the visual arts. The Garden is divided into the following areas: the Pigments Garden (in which species grow from whose flowers, leaves or rhizomes pigments are obtained); the Pomar das Gomas (where fruit trees, essentially of the genus Prunus, produce the gums used in painting); Jardim dos Pintores (in whose flowerbeds a painter is honored every year); the Garden of Oils (where you can find rosemary, rosemary, lavender, poppies, flax and other species that produce oils used in painting); the Jardim das Telas (with species such as flax and cotton) and the Mata (dedicated to wood for sculpture or altarpiece support, and to turpentine and varnishes). In addition to these structural nuclei, there is also a pond and tanks where papyrus and other plants from which paper is made grow (for paper, there is also a large bamboo area).

An investigation is underway on the history of the house and its surroundings. This farm was owned by the Barata-Feyo and Teotónio Pereira families.