This article challenges the common assumption of the fascist nature of the Portuguese
Estado Novo from the thirties to mid-forties, while recognizing the innovative,
modernizing dynamic of much of its state architecture. It takes into account the prolix
discourse of Oliveira Salazar, the head of government, as well as Duarte Pacheco’s
extensive activity as minister of Public Works, and the positions and projects of the
architects themselves. It also considers the allegedly peripheral status of architectural
elites, and the role played by decision makers, whether politicians or bureaucrats, in
the intricate process of architectural renewal. The article shows that a non-radical form
of nationalism has always prevailed as a discourse in which to express the unique Portuguese
spirit, that of a people that saw itself as transporting Christian morality and
faith across the world, a civilizing role that the country continued to fulfil in its overseas
colonies. Taking the architectural legacy of the Estado Novo in its complexity leads
to the conclusion that, while the dictatorship did not dismiss modernization outright,
and though it adopted what could be superficially considered fascist traits, the language
of national resurgence disseminated by the Portuguese regime did not express
a future-oriented fascist ideology of radical rebirth. The country’s futural orientation
would be accomplished by adopting a restrained policy of moderate modernization
that lacked the dynamism and utopian ambition of fascism, a conservatism reflected
in its architecture.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
