The Skope – Museum of Medicine and Health – was inaugurated today in Aveiro, at an event attended by the City Mayor, José Ribau Esteves. The new museum is a project of the Casa Hermes Foundation and will showcase the largest private collection of medical objects in Portugal: a collection of more than 1,800 objects from 20 specialties that tell the story of medicine and the technical-scientific revolution in this area from Classical Antiquity to the present day.
The objects on display in the various rooms that make up the Museum belonged to the personal collection of Hermes de Oliveira Castanhas, a doctor and collector from Aveiro with a passion for his profession, who dedicated himself to bringing together pieces from different eras and origins, which he called “perfections of the past”. After his death, it was up to his family to continue his legacy, rethinking the future of the collection and the Dr. Hermes House-Museum, which today houses the Museum of Medicine and Health.
The Skope has six rooms dedicated to medical specialties and important historical periods. It begins at the origin of everything, with a room dedicated to birth and the specialties of obstetrics and gynecology, and progresses chronologically through various moments in history – such as Classical Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Enlightenment – and through the advances of the 19th century and ends with the great transformation of Medicine in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Museum also has an area dedicated to the Medicine of the Future and healthy lifestyles, with activities focusing on the importance – among other things – of sleep, physical activity and good nutrition, which will serve as the basis for an educational plan for students from various areas and levels of education, from the 2nd cycle to secondary school.
Rita Gíria, General Director of the Casa Hermes Foundation, says: “Skope was born under the auspices of the Casa Hermes Foundation, which decided to pay homage to the figure of Hermes de Oliveira Castanhas and his passion for collecting. Inspired by his passion, we are committed to enhancing and sharing a unique collection on the history and evolution of medicine. We want our visitors to acquire new knowledge and fall in love with the objects on display and the stories they tell, just like us or their collector. But our aim is to go further and think about health from a perspective of the future and progress, by promoting a range of initiatives in the fields of education, training and social responsibility.”
The Casa Hermes Foundation aims to play an active role in the development of health education, disease prevention and healthy ageing, as well as contributing to community training and awareness of these issues.
The museum which has now been inaugurated is part of the Aradas Campus, a larger development originating at Quinta de Aradas, the headquarters of the Casa Hermes Foundation, which today includes Skope and a multipurpose building. It is part of a project that includes the extension of the museum, the construction of an Events Center with capacity for more than 100 people and a Longevity Research Center, as well as a hotel building with 40 rooms to accommodate researchers and visitors, through which the Foundation intends to promote training, research and health education.
Skope – Museum of Medicine and Health is a private project that has been made possible with the support of 14 founding companies that have played a crucial role in its development. In addition, the museum has partners such as Nova Medical School, in the field of health; Ordem dos Médicos, in the scientific field; Altice Labs, in the technological field and LIBPhys-UNL of NOVA FCT, in the field of conservation and restoration.
Watch the video of this fantastic day.