Ribeira de Pena | Camilo’s Women

Ribeira de Pena Town Council is commemorating the 179th anniversary of the death of Joaquina Pereira de França, Camilo Castelo Branco’s first wife, who was born in Taralhão, Gondomar, Porto, on 23 November 1826, and died on 25 September 1847, being buried on 27 September of that year in the Church of Salvador, Ribeira de Pena.

This year, the commemoration is accompanied by the travelling exhibition “Camilo’s Women – Part 2”, on loan from the Famalicão Centre for Studies, which will run from 28 September to 28 October 2026 at the Camilo Castelo Branco Museum in the village of Friúme, Ribeira de Pena, and will be open to all who wish to visit.

Through this initiative, the Town Council aims to raise awareness amongst readers, those with a keen interest, admirers of Camilo and the general public of the importance of women in the life of Camilo Castelo Branco and in society at large, beginning with his first wife, Joaquina ‘Quininha’, as she was known in Friúme.

Whilst women at the time were viewed as bargaining chips and the subject of family deals – particularly through marriage – as sexual objects for men and as beings whose sole purpose was to bear children, Camilo, starting with Joaquina, offers a scathing critique of this issue in his work and makes a major contribution to this shift in mindset, albeit a very slow one; this was essential for men and society to begin to see women in a different light, with different rights and as beings equal to men.

This exhibition also shows how women, each in their own way, within their own context and at their own time, helped Camilo and men in general to grow and mature throughout their lives.

To this end, the general public is invited to visit this exhibition throughout this month.