José Marques da Silva Foundation Institute (FIMS)

FIMS is a private foundation, established by the University of Porto and legally recognised in an order published in the Diário da República nº 139, dated 21 July 2009. FIMS´ mission is the scientific, cultural, educational and artistic promotion, and in particular the classification, preservation, conservation, investigation, study and dissemination, of the entire artistic and architectural heritage of the architect José Marques da Silva, and of the literary, artistic, architectural and urban planning collection of the architects Maria José Marques da Silva Martins and David Moreira da Silva, as well as the collection or incorporation of other documents of a heritage-related, historic, scientific, or artistic value, preferably relating to the architecture and urban planning of Porto and Portugal.
FIMS seeks to be a reference institution in the fields of architectural and artistic culture, in heritage project intervention, in the study, treatment, conservation and dissemination of architectural documents, both at a national and international level, cooperating with other institutions or organisations with similar purposes. In addition to the initial endowment for the public institution, the University of Porto was bequeathed all the movable assets and rights of the architect Maria José Marques da Silva and her husband David Moreira da Silva,  resulting in the decision to transform the José Marques da Silva Institute into this Foundation.
Within the inheritance as a whole should be noted the varied collection of documents in different media endowed by these architects, with items of undeniable value, of a cultural, artistic, architectural and social nature. This collection is characterised by the professional archives of the architect Marques da Silva, and also of the architects Maria José Marques da Silva and David Moreira da Silva. These archives are unified by the archive of the Lopes Martins family, to which is added that of the wife of Marques da Silva, giving a social context to the two architectural archives, as well as an important art collection, particularly of contemporary paintings. This complex collection of information is held in the architects´ own Atelier and Residence which forms part of the mansion of the Lopes Martins family, in a unique building in the Praça Marquês do Pombal (Marquês do Pombal Square), a key location in the city of Porto.

(translated by Gill Stoker)

Published Statutes online, Portal da Justiça, 2008-11-03.

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