Since its inauguration in 1865, the Crystal Palace of Porto has served as the stage for some of the country’s most important events. The First Portuguese Colonial Exhibition, held in that building in 1934 during the Estado Novo regime remains as one of the most notorious. This article aims to analyze the main characteristics of that expo, highlighting the enclosure and the transformations it suffered through ephemeral architectural solutions. The redesign of the palace facade not only mirrors the aesthetic taste of its time but can also serve as the first example of the necessity to readapt the building.
The analysis shown is based on a bibliographic revision and is a result of crossing hemerographic and iconographic sources as a mean to contribute to the study of Porto’s Crystal Palace, a showcase for political and ideological demonstrations in the regime of 1934.