Launch of the book Miniature city. A model of Lisbon by fireman Luís Pereira de Carvalho

While the model of Lisbon built by fireman Luís Caetano Pereira de Carvalho (1862-1933) has been exhibited seven times, in-depth research on the model, its creator and the cultural environment that enabled its development has never been developed until now. 

This research was the starting point for the temporary exhibition entitled Miniature city. Instead of simply exhibiting the model once again, a research team was created to look into multiple aspects of the model's creator and history. 

In a collaboration with the Fire Service Museum (Museu do Bombeiro/Regimento de Sapadores Bombeiros de Lisboa), the team investigated the life and work of Luís Caetano Pereira de Carvalho, Assistant Chief at the Municipal Firefighter Corps from 1901 to 1929. The study highlights his versatile professional training (as a firefighter, but also as a builder and master carpenter) and the periods of his greatest dedication to the model's development.

As the urban fabric of the city has undergone so many changes since the 20th Century, three researchers from the Museum of Lisbon focused on the stages of the model's development and on contextualising the Lisbon it represents. Another researcher contributed with a study on the history of the fire department, and on the role of Luís Caetano Pereira de Carvalho during the complex and experimental years of the First Republic.

Also featuring contributions by members of Luís Pereira de Carvalho's family, the research gave rise to another issue of the collection of monographs published by the Museum of Lisbon (the fifth volume), with 122 pages revealing a strong creative personality of unrivalled methodological rigour and a rare virtuosity. Such was Luís Caetano Pereira de Carvalho, an illustrious Lisbonite of 100 years ago, who left to posterity a model of the city as fascinating as it is now little known.