Our words will always be insufficient and incomplete when it comes to speaking about the great personality Carlos Relvas was: a nobleman, a grand seigneur, a gentleman farmer and a sportsman that Golegă, which I'm honoured to represent as a Mayor, had as an illustrious son and to which he was a true ambassador in arts and science.
Anything written or said will never be enough, regarding the profile and figure that distinguished him or his spiritual culture, or the horizons that he - in a precocious and predictive manner – saw, which all made him acknowledged by his peers worldwide.
An eclectic man of many skills, besides being a farmer he was a remarkable horseman, whose horses showed the good equestrian principles together with the owner's art in the arena. He was an inventor whose creativity brought bold and daring solutions to the people of his time; a musician, as he expressed his fine sensitivity through his Stradivarius; but, most of all, he was the initiator of a new art and science – photography. To this he dedicated most of his life and that is shown in the work he left us all, which truly is a testimony of 19th century's ways of life, for ever registered with his camera lenses, and whose final results were acknowledged in the exhibitions of Madrid, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Vienna and Philadelphia.
The advanced techniques and materials used, together with his research skills, were factors that contributed to his work, where we recognize the study and use of photo-typography, which is part of his legacy to us and for which he was awarded several prizes worldwide.
What about the stage and the scenery chosen for his creativity? The House-Studio, whose building he started in 1872 and finished four years later, is absolutely original worldwide and, whether regarding its decoration or its structure, eclectic as himself. And so the villa where we are now was born, according to the new iron architecture and in obedience to a typology with no known precedent and especially created for one purpose only – photography.
At the historic centre of Golegă, what used to be the Relvas Palace and later the City Council – unfortunately destroyed by a terrible fire – faced the garden where this villa stood and later on would be a habitable house.
After about a decade in which it was left to nature's will and the carelessness of men, the House-Studio was totally recovered and restored into its original plan, during 2002 and 2003.
Therefore, one of the most interesting buildings of our national heritage and unique worldwide was preserved, a converging point for those who are interested in photography, a place of tribute and homage to one of its most brilliant scholars, who enriched it with innovative processes and techniques, Mr. Carlos Relvas.
City Council of Golegă, 8th December, 2006.
Dr. José Veiga Maltez