Miguel Torga: Museums, tours and landscapes

Miguel Torga, the literary pseudonym of Adolfo Correia da Rocha (1907–1995), is one of the most significant authors in twentieth-century Portuguese literature. The choice of his pen name reflects a dual homage: to the influential Spanish writers Miguel Cervantes and Miguel de Unamuno, whose work he deeply admired, and to the native flora of his birthplace – the "torga" – a type of heath that grows spontaneously in the northeastern region of Portugal (Trás-os-Montes). Trained as a physician but devoted to literature, Miguel Torga wrote a prolific and diverse body of work (poetry, short stories, plays and diaries) characterised by a persistent engagement with existential introspection, an unwavering loyalty to his Portuguese cultural roots, and a profound attachment to the land, particularly the rural landscapes of the region where he was born.

Within the scope of literary tourism, Miguel Torga constitutes a paradigmatic example, given the profound interconnection between his biography, literary productions, and multiple locations in the Portuguese territory. His book, Portugal, is particularly relevant in the framework of literary touring as it constitutes "a literary travel itinerary" in itself (Mateus, 2009, p. 233) and a text of "tourist literature" (Hendrix, 2014, pp.24-25), i.e., a narrative that motivates real or virtual tourist practices via the explicit intersection of geographical elements with the textual fabric of literature, and a text that illustrates two key concepts in tourism studies: the concepts of tourist and travellers.

Three literary museums (see https://www.unistrapg.it/en/literary-museums in this dictionary) have been established to document and honour Miguel Torga's biography and work (Baleiro, 2023): one in Coimbra, where he lived for over forty years, and two in São Martinho da Anta, where he was born on the 12th of August 1907. In Coimbra, the visitor can find the Miguel Torga House Museum (located at number 3 of Fernando Pessoa Square), situated in the residence where the author lived and passed away. In this town, in central Portugal, Miguel Torga earned his medical degree in 1933 and went on to pursue a prolific literary career. This House Museum, inaugurated in 2007, remains largely unchanged from the days when the writer lived there. Inside, visitors can see Torga's office, his Royal typewriter, his permanent ink pen, and his couch, which he referred to as "sarcophagus" (Campos, 2025). The museum collection comprises signed first editions, photographs, paintings, ceramics, and several pieces of furniture, as well as temporary exhibitions. Serving as both a museum and cultural centre, the Miguel Torga House Museum hosts a range of activities, including literary gatherings, book launches, and educational initiatives. Visitors' interaction with this literary site is often characterised by introspective engagement and an appreciation of literary memory, as the intimate domestic setting invites an emotional connection with the author's life and work. The spatial arrangement (with displayed photographs, manuscripts, and preserved environment) collectively enables a sensory approach to Torga's biography and, thus, fosters a deeper insight into his literary production (Baleiro, 2023).

Located in São Martinho da Anta, a parish in the municipality of Sabrosa and the birthplace of Miguel Torga, the Espaço Miguel Torga (Miguel Torga Space) is a contemporary cultural centre inaugurated in 2016, designed by the renowned Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura. Conceived to celebrate and honour the author's profound ties to the Trás-os-Montes and Douro regions – central themes in his literary work – this museum features a permanent exhibition dedicated to his life and work, a space for temporary exhibitions, an auditorium, a library and study areas, and a cafeteria. The architectural design, distinguished by its use of schist and harmonious integration with the surrounding landscape, underscores the interplay between literature, place and identity. On this literary site, the visitor experience is not as emotional as in the author's house museum, as it invites visitors to explore the building and exhibitions, which assume a more pronounced territorial and identity-based dimension, engaging with the surrounding landscape that influenced the author's literary imagination (Baleiro, 2023).

Adjacent to Miguel Torga Space, visitors can explore the Miguel Torga House, inaugurated in 2022, where the author was born. It is a single-storey, modest dwelling with its original furnishings and personal objects, which preserve the intimate atmosphere of the space, including his father's scales, his mother's spinning wheel, and the writer's armchair where he often wrote by the fireplace. In other rooms of the museum, contemporary displays feature Torga's quotes, a biographical chronological timeline, and pottery from Bisalhães – an element referenced in Torga's writings – thus offering a tangible connection to the cultural and material world that shaped his literary imagination. As this house was also the holiday residence of Torga and his family, one of the rooms is dedicated to Torga's wife and daughter, two distinguished academicians (Loureiro & Monteiro, 2022).

These three literary tourism sites and products function as autobiographical monuments (Albano, 2007), offering a constructed representation of the individual who inspired them and once inhabited two of these places. Via the arrangement of objects, the display of manuscripts and the preserved or staged environment, they contribute to a sensory reading of Torga's biography, promoting a deeper cognitive and emotional understanding of his literary production (Baleiro, 2023). The preservation of Torga's houses and the creation of a museological structure that perpetuates and celebrates his life and work produced literary places on the map of Coimbra and São Martinho da Anta. These sites, together with the other key moments of Miguel Torga's life and the vivid spatial representations in his literary work (particularly of the Douro River, which is recurrently depicted as a dynamic, audacious and sublime presence), lend themselves to the design of literary tours and routes. An example of this is the route designed by the Historical Douro Association, titled "Caminhos da Literatura – Miguel Torga" (Paths of Literature – Miguel Torga), which is freely available online for Portuguese-speaking visitors. This route in the Trás-os-Montes and Douro region includes a coherent list of places where visitors may engage with the author's emotional geography and gain insight into his work and worldview: Vila Real, Vila do Pinhão, Lamego, Montalegre, Chaves, Vinhais, Bragança, Miranda do Douro, Freixo de Espada à Cinta, Barca d'Alva, Régua, Foz Côa, Mêda and Moimenta da Beira. In this route, the natural and human landscapes portrayed in Torga's texts have been (re)interpreted and valued as literary and tourist heritage.

Miguel Torga House also offers a three-day literary route to anyone interested in the author. The PDF of the literary route is freely accessible for download. This literary route, entitled Três Dias no Douro (Three days in Douro), invites visitors to discover the places Torga visited and wrote about, as well as many other cultural, natural, and gastronomic resources that the region has to offer. The first day includes visits to São Martinho de Anta and Sabrosa, and the second to the Douro, specifically to two viewpoints (Miradouro de São Cristovão do Douro and Miradouro de São Domingos do Monte Coxo), where the poet would relax and find inspiration. The route also includes a visit to the Douro Museum, which researches, exhibits and interprets material and immaterial artefacts that represent the identity, culture, history and growth of the Douro region throughout various historical periods. The Douro Valley was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2001. The third day focuses on the town of Vila Real and suggests a visit to the historical town centre, as well as six other tourist attractions. In total, this literary route highlights twenty-four points of interest, and the downloadable PDF of the route also features excerpts from Miguel Torga's texts.

The municipality of Sabrosa also designed a nearly 12-km circular literary tour O Trilho nos Passos de Torga (The Trail in the Footsteps of Torga), that starts and ends at São Martinho da Anta, and invites visitors to immerse in Miguel Torga's literary space and in a natural environment where the flora, fauna, geology and work of the writer come together harmoniously and uniquely. Despite the existence of three museums and three literary tours, literary tourism associated with Miguel Torga extends beyond museum visits or reading information panels, as his writings can constitute an immersive cultural experience that involves interpreting the landscape and discovering the places that shaped his literary imagination. However, the investment in the museums, combined with the development of literary tours and the promotion of related cultural activities, represents the significance of literary tourism as a niche of heritage and cultural tourism that fosters literary memory, decentralisation of tourist activity and contributes to the development of regional territories. Ultimately, Miguel Torga transcends the role of literary figure to become a cultural ambassador for the regions he inhabited and portrayed. However, the literary tourism sites that have emerged around his life and work serve as a tribute to his legacy and an invitation to rediscover Portugal's landscape through the lens of a writer who captured its essence in his writing.

National funds finance this work through the FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology, IP, under the Project CiTUR UID/04470/2025.

How to cite this entry: Baleiro, R. (2025). Miguel Torga: Museums, tours and landscapes. In R. Baleiro, G. Capecchi & J. Arcos-Pumarola (Eds.), E-Dictionary of Literary Tourism. University for Foreigners of Perugia. https://doi.org/10.34623/zdg2-hn59