Portugal dos Pequenitos

Portugal dos Pequenitos opened in 1940, conceived by Bissaya Barreto, a Coimbra doctor and Estado Novo figure, and designed by Cassiano Branco: an outdoor park of Portuguese monuments and regional houses built at child scale, so children can walk into a Belém tower or a Minho farmhouse a couple of metres high. It is genuinely charming and it is also a document of its moment. The park was built during the Exhibition of the Portuguese World, the regime's great self-presentation, and it includes a section of pavilions for the colonies - Angola, Mozambique, Guinea, India, Macau, Timor - built to present empire as natural and benign to children, with the racial framing of the period. The park still stands, and how to handle that section has been debated; interpretation has been added and some elements changed. It is worth going in knowing what it is.

What you actually see

• The miniature monuments - Portuguese buildings at child scale, enterable.
• The regional houses - vernacular architecture from each province in miniature.
• The colonial pavilions - a section built in 1940 to present empire to children.
• The 1940 context - a park designed during the regime's Exhibition of the Portuguese World.

When to go

April to October; it is entirely outdoors. Two to three hours. Busy with school groups on weekdays in term.

Honest expectations

The colonial section reflects the racial and imperial assumptions of 1940 and remains contested - interpretation has been added but the structures stand. Everything is outdoors with little shade. Aimed at young children. The ticket is not cheap.

Nearby

Santa Clara-a-Velha is beside it; central Coimbra is across the bridge.