Portugal has its past marked by the occurrence of very destructive earthquakes. In the well-known 1755 Lisbon earthquake, despite the various estimates proposed by the scientific community it is fair to assume that in Lisbon, more than 50% of the buildings were heavily damaged or destroyed and about 10% of the population perished. In the beginning of the last century, a moderate event of magnitude 6.6 Mw struck the village of Benavente, causing 46 fatalities and damaging more than 3000 dwellings. Besides this moderate seismicity, the Portuguese building stock in highly populated centres is characterized by a large fraction of masonry buildings, which typically have a higher seismic vulnerability. For these reasons, it is clear that a reliable and accurate platform for damage estimation based on deterministic earthquake scenarios is fundamental. This study provides an overview of the initial development of a damage estimation framework for Portugal, as well as a description of the components and input models required for the various calculations. This system has been established at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, and it will allow not only earthquake engineers and risk modelers to access damage information and launch scenario calculations, but also other experts and decision makers whose needs might have a particular purpose, such as emergency planning.