Gil Eannes Ship

The Gil Eannes Hospital Ship was built in Viana do Castelo in 1955, the year in which it started its activity as a hospital, supporting for decades the Portuguese codfish fleet that operated in the Newfoundland and Greenland Banks. Once the codfish fleet was deactivated, it lay rotting in the docks of Lisbon for many years.
It was in 1998 that the Gil Eannes Foundation (FP), considering it to be the city’s cultural and affective heritage, rescued it from the scrap heap for around 250 thousand Euros, after an unprecedented campaign that involved all the social strata of the city.
It is open to the public since then, in the old commercial dock of Viana do Castelo, as a museological space, and contributing to the cultural, touristic and scientific development, especially in areas related to the sea.
By visiting the Ship you can be in contact with the several spaces that characterize a ship such as the command bridge, engine room, kitchen, bakery and several cabins as well as the spaces that integrate the hospital area, the doctor’s office, treatment room, radiology office, wards and operating room, thus knowing the history of the hospital ship and of the codfish fishing that used to take place in the Newfoundland and Greenland seas.