| Summary: | This paper intends to contribute to interlink the concepts of nation, empire, colonialism, regionalism, museology, and discourse and power in the context of Portugal in the 20th century. To do so, it uses as physical and symbolic scenario Portugal dos Pequenitos (Portugal of the Little Ones), built in Coimbra between 1938 and 1962. The objective is to discuss the role played by this park with a museological component during Estado Novo’s strongest affirmation period, but also to address its construction within the political-sanitary work of the Beira Litoral’s Provincial Council (at the time, the most important regional political institution) and the holistic plan of its president, the physician Bissaya Barreto (1886-1974). Based on an architectural overall perspective, it analyses the formal characteristics of this space, always taking into account the connection with the Portuguese World Exhibition (1940), the parks’ symbolic implications, the subtexts of its representation, and the profile of its architect, Cassiano Branco (1897-1970).
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