The Pathology Museum of Maputo Central Hospital is a living example of the intrinsic relationship between art and science, particularly in the study of pathologies. It preserves a rich collection of artefacts and knowledge of pathologies in Mozambique and immortalises that knowledge through art.


The museum was created by Professor Manuel Dâmaso Prates, a Portuguese pathologist who also founded the Pathological Anatomy Laboratory at the Miguel Bombarda Hospital in Lourenço Marques (today the city of Maputo) on 21 April 1944. Dedicated, observant and highly organised, Prates wished to preserve the bizarre forms of the pathologies that his various patients presented. Drawing on the skill of two taxidermists at what was then the Álvaro de Castro Museum (today the Natural History Museum), Mussolini Fajardo and A. Peão Lopes, who made plaster casts, unique pieces were produced that are still the museum's great treasure today. With the death of Dâmaso Prates in 1965, Professor Fernando Oliveira Torres, also Portuguese and who had arrived in Mozambique in 1958, took on the responsibility of continuing the work done until then. He was accompanied by Professor Carlos Eduardo Mayor Gonzalez, a young doctor at the time who later became the first Mozambican pathologist.

The Pathology Museum preserves a rich collection of artefacts and knowledge of pathologies in Mozambique

One of the Pathology Museum's great attributes is its recognition of Professor Prates's pioneering work in representing the malignant lymphoma of African children, which in 1960 became known as “Burkitt lymphoma”. Indeed, Burkitt himself was impressed by the replicas when he visited the Pathological Anatomy Laboratory at the Miguel Bombarda Hospital. Owing to such meticulous work, some researchers around the world even call this pathology “Prates's tumour”. In 2008, by concession of the Ministry of Health, the museum's pieces were restored by the National Art Museum of Mozambique, in collaboration with the National School of Visual Arts. The partnership between these institutions and the Pathology Department of Maputo Central Hospital resulted in an exhibition called “Art in the Service of Science”, which was held at the National Art Museum in May of that year.

If you wish to visit the museum, please contact the management of Maputo Central Hospital beforehand, as admission is by appointment only.