receives
Paolo Gentiloni,
prime minister of Italy, in January 2017
Construction The house was first built by capitalist Joaquim Machado Cayres in 1877, to serve as his private residence. The plot of land he bought for it had belonged to the adjoining
Benedictine Monastery since 1598.
State acquisition In 1928, the newly established
authoritarian regime expropriated the mansion so that it would become the official residence of the president of the Council of Ministers (then the official title of the prime minister). After the necessary fitting-out works,
António de Oliveira Salazar moved into the mansion in May 1938, even though the formal unveiling only took place eleven months later, in April 1939. During the works, a monumental staircase connecting the grounds of the mansion to the parliament gardens was commissioned to architect Cristino da Silva. Starting 5 June 2016, the gardens of São Bento Mansion are open to the public on Sundays, bar those in which visits would collide with the prime minister's official schedule. These visits were a result of a protocol between the presidency of the
Council of Ministers and the Lisbon City Council. Starting on 5 October 2017, the year-long exhibition "
Arte em São Bento" (Art in São Bento), also visitable on Sundays, saw the mostly
academic art collection in the residence (on loan from several museums in the country) be replaced with works from the
Serralves Contemporary Art Museum. The intention is to change the art collections there every year, on 5 October (the anniversary of the
proclamation of the Portuguese Republic). and
Pedro Sánchez,
Prime Minister of Spain, in July 2020 Even though it has been the
official residence of the Portuguese prime minister since 1938, very few prime ministers have since opted to actually live there during their respective terms in office. Those who have were
António de Oliveira Salazar (prime minister from 1933 to 1968; resided from 1938 to 1970),
Vasco Gonçalves (prime minister from 1974 to 1975),
José Pinheiro de Azevedo (prime minister from 1975 to 1976),
Carlos Mota Pinto (prime minister from 1978 to 1979),
Aníbal Cavaco Silva (prime minister from 1985 to 1995), and
Pedro Santana Lopes (prime minister from 2004 to 2005). In 2018, it was announced that several reports (including one from the
National Laboratory for Civil Engineering) identified safety issues on São Bento Mansion; from April to October of that year, the gardens were closed and the residence was renovated with new
heating, ventilation and air conditioning,
electrical wiring and
fire protection systems. In the meantime, the Office of the Prime Minister was temporarily moved to the old premises of the Ministry of the Sea, in
Commerce Square. ==See also==