SKOPE – Museu de Medicina e Saúde

About the museum

SKOPE – Museu de Medicina e Saúde (SKOPE – Museum of Medicine and Health) is a private museum of the Fundação Casa Hermes (Casa Hermes Foundation), born from the collection of the Aveiro doctor Hermes de Oliveira Castanhas (1932–2015), a gynaecologist and obstetrician who collected for five decades. For a long time the collection was itinerant, shown at congresses and conferences, and in the 1990s it gained a permanent space at the Casa-Museu Dr. Hermes, in Aveiro.

After the doctor's death, the family rethought the future of the collection. The Fundação Casa Hermes, recognised in 2022, took over the collection and created SKOPE, which opened in Aveiro on 17 October 2024. The name comes from the Greek verb skopein, meaning to look, observe and examine.

The museum occupies a 19th-century house in the style of the so-called “brasileiro de torna-viagem” (houses built by emigrants returning from Brazil), in the Quinta de Aradas, acquired by the family in 1976 and the seat of the house museum until 2020. The collection brings together about 1800 pieces from the 16th to the 20th centuries, from various specialities. The route links the history of medicine to health education: it begins with an immersive experience in the womb, passes through the centuries and ends, on the top floor of the house, in a space dedicated to the future and to healthy lifestyles.

Highlights

• About 1800 medical and scientific objects from the 16th to 20th centuries
• Immersive experience in the womb at the start of the route
• Journey through the history of medicine and its discoveries
• Space on the future of medicine and healthy lifestyles
• 19th-century house on the Quinta de Aradas

Permanent exhibition

• Percurso do museu: da história da medicina ao futuro da saúde – Journey through the history of medicine, with an immersive experience in the womb and the evolution of knowledge over the centuries, ending in a space on the future of medicine and healthy lifestyles.

Founded

2024

Operated by

Fundação Casa Hermes

Admission & discounts

Visitor tickets include an audio guide on the visitor's own mobile phone. Holders of the Circuito Ciência Viva card receive a 20% discount on senior, adult, young and child tickets.

Accessibility

• Wheelchair accessible
• Elevator: no information
• Accessible restroom: no information
• Accessible parking: no information
• Service dogs welcome
• Tactile models & exhibits: no information
• Sign language tours: no information
• Easy-to-read materials: no information
• Audio description: no information

Route prepared for visitors with reduced mobility. Content available in Portuguese and English. Only assistance animals are admitted.

Kids & families

Great for kids & families

• Family tours & workshops
• Hands-on stations

The museum is designed for visitors of all ages, with playful and interactive experiences; it offers the activities “Verão no Museu” (Summer at the Museum) and “Férias no Museu” (Holidays at the Museum), and a programme for schools.

Getting there & parking

The museum is in Aradas, about 3 km from the centre of Aveiro.

Amenities & dining

• Café
• Museum shop
• Lockers

30 free lockers (40 × 40 × 40 cm); café and shop.

Events & venue rental

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

Plan your visit