Arquivo Histórico da Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa

Created in 1865, the CVP is an institution that provides humanitarian and social assistance, especially to the most vulnerable groups in armed conflicts and natural disasters or catastrophes. First installed in Praça do Comércio, the CVP has been since 1950 in the Conde d' Óbidos Palace, at Janelas Verdes. The Palace's attic houses the increasingly sought-after archive.

Luísa Nobre is currently the only person in the Historical Archive of the Portuguese Red Cross (CVP). She embodies the multifunctional professional who simultaneously manages the CVP archive, the library and the museum - which form the Historical-Cultural Service of CVP - but also accumulates all related tasks.

The documents have not always been open to the public. In 1988, and for many years, the documentation was stored in a small warehouse of the General Secretariat. This body was responsible for managing all the documentation of the PLC. As so often happens, documentation that had no immediate value or usefulness or clashed with the management of the physical space, was moved to a secondary space.

The person in charge of the Historical and Cultural Service until 2011, Leonor Brandão de Mello, with a degree in History and a post-graduate degree in Documentary Sciences, often used the institution's archive and aspired to a different future for it.

In the early 2000s, with the CVP under the presidency of Maria de Jesus Barroso, Leonor Brandão de Mello and Luísa Nobre began the work of cleaning, conditioning, organising and describing the archive. It is not catalogued, but it is organized by subject and chronologically, and there are no research tools. It is an organisation that aims to meet the immediate consultation needs of researchers, but it is fragile because it depends exclusively on Luísa and on the location of the documents she has in her memory.

The First World War, which in 2014 celebrated its 100th anniversary, is one of the themes that most attracts researchers and users of this archive. But the presence and action of the CVP in multiple emergency situations, at national and international level, for 150 years, makes the archive of this institution multifaceted, gathering documentation on events as diverse as the Spanish civil war, the 1967 Lisbon floods, the Chiado fire in 1988 or the Castelo de Paiva accident in 2001.

Throughout its history, the Portuguese Red Cross, alone or within the framework of its International Movement, has provided assistance in emerging scenarios of armed conflict, both nationally and internationally, which are reflected in the documentation preserved, and the following events stand out:

• Revolutionary movements and colonial campaigns of Portugal; World War I; Spanish Civil War; Second World War; Invasion of Portuguese India by the Indian Union; Romanian Revolution; Conflicts of Former Yugoslavia; Angola's Civil War; Conflicts in Darfur/Sudan, Mozambique and East Timor, among others.

In terms of major disasters and natural catastrophes, the Portuguese Red Cross also has very relevant information resulting from its intervention, highlighting the following events:

• Pneumonic Influenza (1918-19) and Tuberculosis (1949); Earthquakes in Faial (1926), Greece (1953), Agadir (1960) and S. Jorge, Azores (1964 and 1990); Cyclone in Portugal (1941); Railway disasters in Vila Franca de Xira (1947), Alcafache (1985), Póvoa de Santa Iria (1986) and Santa Cruz de Benfica (1989); Floods in the Lisbon District (1967 and 1983); Fire in Chiado (1988); Accident with Martinair flight in Faro (1992); Storms in Alentejo and Azores (1997); Floods in Mozambique (2000); Accident at Hintze Ribeiro Bridge, Castelo de Paiva (2001); Heat waves and fires in Portugal (2003 and 2005); Tsunami in Asia (2004); Earthquakes in Pakistan (2005) and China (2008); Typhoon in Burma (2008); Wave of cold weather in Portugal (2008); Earthquake in Haiti (2010); Heavy rains in Madeira Island (2010 and 2012); Earthquake and tsunami in Japan (2011).