Asia House

Asia House brings together a collection of 1.200 pieces from the Francisco Capelo collection, dating back to the 4th century BC until the beginning of the 20th century, which tell the story of several Asian countries before the arrival of the Portuguese and Europeans to this continent.

 

The São Roque Palace, located in Bairro Alto, Lisbon, from the 17th century, will host the permanent exhibition “Casa Asia – Francisco Capelo Collection”.

Asia House will be a museum created from the Asian art collection, valued at around 11 million euros, of the collector Francisco Capelo, whose fashion and design collection is already on display at MUDE. It is housed in the São Roque Palace, facing the Church of São Roque, in Bairro Alto, and boasts around a thousand rare and high-quality pieces, which testify to the cultural richness of the various countries of Asia (especially India, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, China, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia).

The collection begins in the 4th century BC and goes up to the 19th century, mixing sculpture (in stone, bronze and wood), ceramics, jewelry, ivory, masks and furniture.

The collector Francisco Capelo donated to Santa Casa three-quarters of his collection of Asian art, which is on display at the São Roque Palace. The fourth part was acquired by the institution.