Alzira Costa

Alzira de Barros de Abreu was born in 1875, in Oliveira do Hospital, in Coimbra, the daughter of Albano Mendes de Abreu, a medical doctor, and his wife, Emília de Barros Coelho de Campos.^[1] She was the sister of the writer and politician José de Barros Mendes de Abreu, who was born on 20 July 1878.^[2]

She was also the sister of António de Barros Mendes de Abreu (1880–1960), a lawyer, and the aunt of the dancer and choreographer Margarida de Abreu (1915–2006) and Maria Helena von Hoffmann de Abreu (1920–2020), a piano teacher and a pioneer of yoga in Portugal, who married João de Freitas Branco, the son of the composer Luís de Freitas Branco.^[3]

She married Afonso Costa in the New Cathedral of Coimbra, on 15 September 1892.^[1] In 1916, she was one of the founders of the Portuguese Women's Crusade.^[4]

She died at the age of 94, in Nossa Senhora de Fátima, Lisbon.^[1]