António is our in-country battlefield historian for Portugal and Spain. He leads our tours following in the footsteps of the Napoleonic campaigns and battles of the Peninsular War.

A former Parachute Infantry Colonel in the Portuguese Army, António gained extensive operational experience in the Balkans, East Timor, Kosovo, Somalia, Mali, Uganda, Iraq and Afghanistan. He served in the Portuguese Army for 39 years and was directly involved with historical-military matters for several of those years. His last ten years of service was as the head of the Museums Department of the Directorate of Military History and Culture.

António is a Partner of the Portuguese Museology Association (APOM); a member of the Academy of Military Terrestrial History of Brazil (AHMTB) – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; a member of the Executive Board of the International Committee for Museums and Collections of Arms and Military History (ICOMAM); an Institutional Partner of the International Council of Museums (ICOM); a member of the Institute of Geography and Military History of Brazil (lGHMB); a member and Bronze Partner of the International Guild of Battlefield Guides; and a Member of the Combatants League (Portugal).

His interest in Napoleonic Campaigns was sparked as a cadet at the Portuguese Military Academy, and this passion has been kept alive throughout his military career. António continues to be fascinated by the Napoleonic era and is passionate about preserving the battlefields in Portugal and Spain.

António speaks Portuguese, Spanish, French and English and understands Italian well. The perfect association that António has as a historian and retired military officer makes him an ideal historian and guide. He transmits a perspective of a battle that incorporates the historical facts, locations, strategy and tactics, which enables him to bring together the subtle association of these factors as he leads tours around the major battlefields of the Peninsular War. He firmly believes that none of us are bigger than the subject, as, in the end, the joy of battlefield guiding is not what the guide gets from it, but what the customer sees, experiences and understands.

For António, “Monitoring, transmitting, explaining and showing people who visit us the historical facts related to the fields where the battles of the Peninsular War were fought, despite being an enormous task that goes beyond professionalism, has become a personal passion.”