The work on the panels at the station will take place over 14 months, according to the Administration of the Port of Lisbon (APL), as part of a broader project that also covers the panels of the Gare Marítima de Alcântara, the recovery of the two buildings and the creation of an Interpretative Center.

"The artist Almada Negreiros (1893-1970) considered this his most accomplished work, and saw these panels as one of his best works”, restoration technician Mariagiulia Roscigno, one of the seven specialists on the NC Restauro team, told Lusa agency.

The specialist discovered, during her study of the work, that “it is possible to notice a variation in his way of expressing himself, a development in technique, in the use of materials, and even from a figurative point of view”.

Between 1943 and 1949, Almada Negreiros reached the highest point of his mural painting at Gare Marítima da Rocha do Conde d'Óbidos and Gare Marítima de Alcântara, in a set of panels that are being recovered within the scope of a protocol of collaboration between APL and the World Monuments Fund Portugal (WMF) Group, with global funding of 700 thousand euros, through donations from national and international patrons.

The restoration began at Gare Marítima da Rocha do Conde d’Óbidos, where experts carried out a pre-diagnosis of the condition of the six panels measuring 27 square meters each.

Almada was inspired by the themes of the capital's reality, such as the departure of boats loaded with emigrants, fishing and shipbuilding activities along the Tagus River, and Lisbon life on the streets, in circus shows, with trapeze artists and jugglers.


"These are panels with a lot of movement and lots of details by an artist who was multidisciplinary and who liked to experiment with different techniques", pointed out Mariagiulia Roscigno, adding that, during the research, the group of conservators discovered that, in the initial work of applying the drawings to the walls for subsequent painting, Almada explored different modes of intervention.

The process has already gone through several phases, from cleaning the panels, polishing the surfaces, removing dust deposits that covered the colours, stabilising the pictorial films, and filling gaps, in a work that will "return the luminosity" of the works that were subject to only one restoration intervention in the early 1970s.

Today, to mark the International Day of Monuments and Sites, APL opens Gare Marítima da Rocha do Conde d’Óbidos to public visits, subject to prior registration, between 5:00 pm and 7:00 pm.