Open from July 9 to December 31, 2005 at the Museu do Caramulo, this exhibition invites visitors to know, through automobiles, some of the great historical personalities of the 20th century, such as João Franco, Queen D. Amélia, António de Oliveira Salazar, Francisco Craveiro Lopes, Pope John Paul II, Pope Paul VI, King Juan Carlos I and Queen Elizabeth II, among others.
And because this year signals the 60th anniversary of the end of WW II (1945-2005), probably the event with greatest impact in the history of the last century, this exhibition focus mainly on certain protagonists of that conflict, such as Francisco Franco, Charles de Gaulle, Adolf Hitler, Dwight Eisenhower, Benito Mussolini, Josef Stalin and Hirohito, to name but a few, thus giving new generations an opportunity to know better these relevant figures in world history.
Among the cars in the exhibition – models from different years and brands – is the 1912 Renault owned by João Franco, and the 1938 Mercedes-Benz owned by Salazar (wrongly dubbed “Hitler’s gift”) the 1937 armoured Chrysler used in the escape from the prison of Caxias or the rare 1953 Pegaso given by Franco to the Portuguese Republic President Craveiro Lopes.
The exhibition “Os Automóveis e as Figuras Históricas” has a strong historical and didactical approach, offering an array of image, sound and video contents, with films, texts, biographies and items from the period, linked to the historical figures.