D. Pedro V

Pedro de Alcântara Maria Fernando Miguel Rafael Gonzaga Xavier João António Leopoldo Victor Francisco de Assis Júlio Aurélio de Bragança e Bourbon de Saxe-Coburgo-Gota - full name - D. Pedro V was a sympathetic figure: intelligent, cultured, passionate about arts and letters.

The reign of D. Pedro V was marked by various political incidents and the terrible epidemics that ravaged the country and victimized the monarch himself at the age of 24.

D. Pedro V had a strong connection to the city of Porto. He came to Porto several times as a prince and then as king. He was responsible for the construction of a military hospital (currently the Hospital Militar D. Pedro V on Avenida da Boavista) and the acquisition of the Carrancas Palace (today the Soares dos Reis National Museum) as the official residence of the royal family in Porto. The monarch visited the writer Camilo Castelo Branco twice in the Jail of the Court of Appeal (1860 and 1861).

Life size representation of D. Pedro V, King of Portugal. Oil on canvas by António Manuel da Fonseca (professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lisbon and the King's painting teacher), dated 1860, identical to the one existing in the Supreme Court of Justice painted two years earlier by the same author. Framed in carved and gilded wood.

The painting was given to the Court of Appeal by the monarch himself.

In 1858, after completion of the restoration works of the Court, the President António Dias de Oliveira himself informs the Government:

"I cannot fail to inform your Excellency (...) - that it has become apparent that the Court will start operating in its own premises, not only without the customary adornment of the canopy and portrait, but having in sight the wooden frame, destined for its placement...