Carolina Augusta Picaluga Paiva de Andrade – O Quarto da Menina

The work "The Girl's Room" reveals Carolina Augusta Picaluga Paiva de Andrade (1835 - 1912), a benefactor of SCML, who, after the premature death of her daughter at the age of 21, and in agreement with her husband, decided to leave all her assets to this prestigious institution with the purpose of inscribing the name of her daughter in posterity. During the happy family years, her house on Rua de São Boaventura, in Bairro Alto, was the stage for lively musical evenings, where the piano played by her daughter Luísa could be heard and her father, Jacinto Paiva de Andrade, presented his art collection to the guests. The untimely death of the young girl silenced the laughter in the palace forever and decades later gave voice to a myth where passion and haunting once again inhabit the "girl's room". Already a widow, Carolina founded an educational institution for young girls that she named after her deceased daughter. There she multiplied the affection and care she had previously used in the education of Luísa by several children who had the opportunity there to be educated and prepared for adult life. The maintenance of this institution, the Luísa Paiva de Andrade Institute, was one of the conditions for the donation of all its assets to SCML, together with the task of creating an economic neighbourhood, a legacy that now lies under the rubble of relentless modernity. It is about Carolina's life, her family and her legacy that the window of this "Girl's Room" opens.

Collection: Meritorious - 10th volume
Coordination: Editorial Center | Culture Directorate

Author: Marta Brites Rosa
Organization of the inventory and charges of the will: José Ribeiro Testas: Charity Unit | Property and Heritage Management Department

Graphic design: Catarina França
Revision: Maria Antas de Campos

Photograph and image: Archive of the Congregation of the Presentation of Mary; Lisbon Municipal Archive; National Archive of Torre do Tombo; Lisbon Municipal Newspaper Library; SCML Audiovisual Center; Palácio do Correio Velho.

Year of publication: March, 2022
Editor: Editorial Center of Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa
ISBN: 9789899021525