Cossoul is a community interest institution, founded on 7 September 1885 by 47 music amateurs and admirers of Guilherme Cossoul, a 19th-century Portuguese composer and cellist. He was also the founder of Lisbon’s voluntary firemen brigade. Early on, Cossoul’s scope of action broadened to other artistic and social areas of intervention and played a key role in the development of the Portuguese Modern Theatre.

Cossoul’s current scope of action includes theatre, literature, visual arts, music, cinema, education and social integration through the arts, fostering various initiatives for all age groups. It hosts an independent publisher, Artefacto, a youth community wind band, Banda Juvenil Guilherme Cossoul, and an art gallery with the project “ balloon — production, dialog, and participation“. It also has a radio – Voz Online, a bookstore and a bar, all of which complement and support its various cultural activities.

In 2016 began the musical project Banda Juvenil Guilherme Cossoul. Through such initiative, Cossoul has assumed an educational stance by promoting beginner and professional courses, while also welcoming and organising diverse cultural events, such as Reverso – Meeting of Artists, Authors and Independent Publishers, that has celebrated its 6th edition in 2024.