ROYAL SCHOOL OF MAFRA

On 9 December 1855, the solemn inauguration of the Royal School of Mafra occurred in the convent refectory, presided over by Dom Pedro V, its founder. On swearing in the first headmaster, Vitorino João Carlos Dantas Pereira, the monarch predicted the enterprise's success, stating "that he entrusted the pupils to him to make them good Portuguese and good citizens". Many pupils attended this model primary school (the first in Portugal to use the blackboard, chalk and the Decimal Metric System, and various textbooks designed expressly for it). They would go on to become key figures in various areas of national life. It was abolished in October 1911.