The Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda has released new coins which are in honour of one of the country’s most prominent architects — Eduardo Elísio Machado Souto de Moura. Born in the city of Porto in 1952, the country’s second largest city after Lisbon, he is better known as Eduardo Souto de Moura, and was the recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2011 and the Wolf Prize in Arts in 2013.
Souto de Moura began his career as an independent architect in 1980 after winning a design competition which saw the construction of the Casa das Artes, a cultural centre with an auditorium and an exhibition gallery in the gardens of a neo-classical mansion in his native city of Porto. Souto de Moura’s early commissions were often modest residential houses, mainly in his native country. Later, he was commissioned to design shopping centres, schools, art galleries, and a cinema in countries including Spain, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland between 1989 and 1997. From 1981 to 1990, Souto de Moura was an assistant professor at his alma mater and was later appointed a professor in the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Porto. He has been a visiting professor at the architectural schools of Geneva, Paris-Belleville, Harvard University, Dublin, ETH Zurich, and Lausanne.
He also collaborated on the design of the Portuguese pavilion at the Expo 2000 exhibition in Hanover, Germany, and Serpentine Gallery’s annual summer pavilion in 2004. Souto de Moura would spend eight years on the restoration of Santa Maria do Bouro, a half-destroyed 12th-century monastery in Amares, transforming it into a pousada, or traditional historical hotel.
On the 28th March 2011, it was announced that Moura would be the recipient of the 2011 Pritzker Prize. Souto de Moura is only the second Portuguese architect to win the honour, after Álvaro Siza (born 1933), who has been regarded as Portugal’s most notable living architect. The prize committee noted his work on the Estádio Municipal de Braga, the Burgo Tower in Porto, and the Paula Rego Museum in Cascais for the prize being awarded to him. The year after, on the 3rd January 2012, an announcement was made that Souto de Moura was to receive the 2013 Wolf Prize in Arts along with Robert S. Langer, a prominent American chemical engineer, scientist, entrepreneur, and inventor.
The coin is designed by colleague and fellow, Architect Alvaro Siza, whose issue is dedicated to Architect Eduardo Souto Moura. Both are two internationally recognised celebrities in Portuguese architecture and both are winners of the prestigious Pritzker Prize. With this design created by Álvaro Siza, he focuses on nature and construction.
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The obverse includes the representation of a stylised structure while the commemorative text EDUARDO SOUTO DE MOURA is placed along the upper edge of the coin.
The reverse includes a stylised figure of a tree, while the placement of the country’s crest is seen on the left of the primary design. The denomination 7.5 EURO is shown toward the upper edge and to the right.
| Denom. |
Metal |
Weight | Diameter | Quality |
Maximum Mintage |
| €7.50 |
.500 Silver |
13.5 g | 33 mm | Brilliant Unc. |
60,000 |
| €7.50 |
.925 Silver |
13.5 g | 33 mm | Proof |
2,500 |
The silver Proof coins are encapsulated and presented in an environmentally friendly display made of native Portuguese cork with a Perspex base and are accompanied by a certificate of authenticity. For additional information about this coin and others offered from the Impresa Nacional Casa da Moeda, please visit their website.
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