the upheaval caused by the Republican revolution and schism with the church, many of the possessions of the clergy were sold off, including five fountains in the interior gardens (to the Brotherhood of Senhora do Parto for 10$00). On 28 March 1918, the building was ceded to the Ministério de Instrução Pública (Ministry of Public Instruction) and wing occupied by the archbishops was converted into the first Museum D. Diogo de Sousa. By 1920, Dr. Alberto Feio solicited the building to be adapted into a library and archive. The following year, though, the chapel of D. José Bragança was gutted by fire. The project to expand the episcopal palace was drawn up in 1922 for the new library and archive, even as the west wing was stilled occupied by the regimental garrison. In 1930, the episcopal palace underwent profound public works to transform and remodel the building for its use as public library of Braga and district archive. The intention to demolish the eight buildings that surrounded the interior patio was advanced and reconstruction of the Baroque wing. By 1934, the public works were concluded the Baroque wing, under the direction of engineer Almeida Freira, and on 1 December the Public Library of Braga was inaugurated. Throughout 1936 various storms caused damage to the building, resulting in reconstruction projects in the following year, under the direction of Jorge Viana and Fernandes de Sá, that only be concluded in 1939. But, in 1941, a major storm caused damage to the building. In 1943, the process to expropriation of the eight buildings for the construction of an ethnographic museum was interrupted with the death of engineer Duarte Pacheco. António Maria dos Santos da Cunha proposed the removal of the grades that encircled the Largo do Paço this year, but the project would not advance. The facade oriented to Largo D. João Peculiar was being restored in 1944, while the following year a chapel was demolished along the northeast, in order to expand the Rua Eça de Queirós. This became part of the 1946 project to re-landscape the Largo do Paço, that included the suppression of the grade that encircled the parcel. Between 1947 and 1948, the library was under the control of the Ministério da Educação Nacional (Ministry of National Education). In 1947, there was an intention by the municipality to demolish the municipal market, located in the middle of the Praça