About us

Fundação Museu Nacional Ferroviário

Fundação Museu Nacional Ferroviário Armando Ginestal Machado (FMNF), established by Decree-Law n.º 38/2005, of February 17, is a public foundation in accordance with the terms and conditions set out in the Portuguese Framework Law of Foundations (Law n.º 24/2012, of July 9).

Board of Directors

Chair: Mr. Manuel de Novaes Cabral

Tenure: 03/FEB/2020 - 02/FEB/2023

Vice-chair

Director: Mr. Luís Miguel Laranjeiro

Tenure: 04/JUN/2019 - 03/JUN/2022

Director: Mr. Alberto Diogo

Tenure: 31/MAR/2012 - 30/MAR/2015

Director: Mr. Jorge Manuel Faria

Tenure: 04/DEC/2017 - 03/DEC/2020

Founding Committee

Chair: Mr. Manuel de Novaes Cabral

Tenure: 03/FEB/2020 - 02/FEB/2023

Audit Committee

Chair: Ms. Luísa Roque

Tenure: 21/SEP/2006

Supervisory Committee

Chair: Ms. Silvana Bessone (repreenting the Dictorate-General for Culture Heritage)

Tenure: 17/JUN/2016

Vice-Chair: Mr. Francisco Neves (representing the Ministery of Education of Portugal)

Tenure: 16/OCT/2015

Armando Ginestal Machado (1913-1991)

Armando Ginestal Machado was born in Santarém into a family with strong ties to the Portuguese Republican Revolution.

Armando Ginestal Machado studied engineering at the Instituto Superior Técnico and joined the CP (Comboios de Portugal, EPE) staff at a very young age, where he furthered his professional career.

From the 1970s, he dedicated his time to protecting the Portuguese railway heritage. Due to his initiative, the first CP Museological Sections were created in Valença and Santarém in 1979. By 1991, there were ten museological sections in the country, covering the region of Valença to Lagos.

 This action gave rise to a museum project that CP had been nurturing since the early Sixties. The organization of an exhibition dedicated to public transport that was opened to the public in Tejo Power Station in 1985. It was one amazing feat amongst many other highlights of his career.

Ginestal Machado definitely consolidated a corporate culture for the protection and preservation of the railway heritage and its history.