Camões Secondary School

Considered exemplary in terms of pedagogy and hygiene, the school building’s simple, unadorned volume stands out for its technical functionality. Ventura Terra brought the French Lycée model with him after his training in Paris and realised this building during the monarchy’s final years through a regular, asymmetric plan over two floors in the form of a trident made up of a main facade, two lateral bodies and a central one parallel to them, placed around two huge open spaces for playing/recreation. In 1918 it served as a hospital at the height of the Spanish Flu epidemic. A decade later, the Physics and Chemistry offices were built, given the need to distance the laboratories from the school’s main premises. Over the years, it was constantly extended, with the addition of the neighbouring António Arroio Artistic Secondary School and construction of an auditorium, canteen and sports pavilion.