Oporto » Entertainment » Exhibitions

Located in the upscale suburb of Avenida Boavista, Museu De Arte Contemporanea De Serralves is designed by Pritzker Prize-winning and Portugal's best-known architect, Álvaro Siza Vieira. The museum features an avant-garde collection of Portuguese and international contemporary art by painters, sculptors, and designers. Most of the exhibitions here keep changing but there is also an excellent permanent collection featuring works of artists like Georg Baselitz, Ed Ruscha and Gerhard Richter. Nearby, is a pink, 1930s art deco mansion by the name ‘Casa de Serralves', which served as the original museum but now is an exhibition space. Surrounding these architectural masterpieces is the foundation's 18-hectare estate, Parque de Serralves. These beautiful gardens are worth a visit in its own right.

Address: Rua D. João de Castro 210, 4150-417 Oporto, Portugal
Opening Hours: Museum & House: Tuesday to Friday: 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Weekends: 10:00 am to 8:00 pm
Park: Tuesday to Sunday: 10:00 am to 8:00 pm
Tel.: +351 22 615 6500

Photo Credit:Creative Commons / Caravasar

Housed in a Baroque-style building, this house museum was built in memory of famous poet and writer Guerra Junqueiro by his daughter Maria Isabel Guerra Junqueiro. Her main purpose was to recreate a home-style ambience of the poet's house. The museum features an extraordinary collection of decorative arts, ceramics, furniture, glass, jewellery, metal, textiles, weapons and armours. It also displays sculpture donated by the poet to the National Museum of Ancient Art. Visitors could have a look at the auditorium, coffee shop and a sculpture of the poet by Leopoldo de Almeida, displayed in the garden.

Address: Rua D. Hugo, 32 4050-305 Oporto, Portugal
Opening Hours: Monday to Saturday: 10:00 am to 5:30 pm
Sunday: 10:00 am to 12:30 pm & 2:00 pm to 5:30 pm
Tel.: +351 222 003 689

Photo Credit: Creative Commons / MariaCartas

The Museu dos Transportes e Comunicações is located in the humongous 18th century Alfandega Nova building, situated on the bank of the Duoro River. Contradicting its purpose, the building rather resembles a medieval fortress with its massive size and neoclassic facade. The museum concentrates on the history & expansion of transport and communications in the world. There is also a permanent exhibition - O Automovel no Espaco e no Tempo whose highlight is the first car which appeared in Portugal, an 1895 automobile imported from France.

Address: Rua Nova da Alfândega- Edifício da Alfândega, 4050-430 Oporto, Portugal
Opening Hours: Tuesday to Friday: 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
Weekends and holidays: 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm, Closed on Mondays
Tel.: +351 223 403 000

Photo Credit: Creative Commons / Manuel de Sousa

Formerly, Antigo Museu Portuense de Pinturas e Estampas, the Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis is a first arts museum in Portugal. Founded in 1833, it has been headquartered in the Palácio dos Carrancas since 1940. The palace built by a wealthy Oporto (or Porto) family in the late 18th century is currently classified as a World Heritage site.

The museum aims to promote artistic heritage through its varied collections of ceramics, engravings, furniture, glass gold jewellery, paintings, sculptures, silver textiles and the works. In recent times, it has been significantly renovated to improve the interiors but maintain the artistic value of the neo classical facade. The best works at the museum include sculpture by António Soares dos Reis and António Teixeira Lopes and paintings of Henrique Pousão and António Silva Oporto.

Address: Rua de D. Manuel II, 44, 4050-342 Oporto, Portugal
Opening Hours: Tuesday to Saturday: 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Wednesday to Sunday: 10:00 am to 6:00 pm, Closed on Monday, Sunday
Tel.: +351 223 393 770

Museu do Vinho do Porto is located in an 18th century warehouse that was once the storage place for Companhia Geral da Agricultura das Vinhas do Alto Douro wines. The museum operates from the ground floor of the Cais Novo warehouse and seeks to be an information centre on Port wine, a Portuguese wine produced exclusively in the Douro Valley of Northern Portugal. The museum wants to give visitors an insight into the exclusive history associating Oporto with the world famous wine.

Address: Rua de Monchique, 45/52, 4050-394 Oporto, Portugal
Opening Hours: Tuesday to Saturday: 10:00 am to 5:30 pm & 2:00 pm to 5:30 pm, Closed on Monday
Tel.: +351 222 076 300

Photo Credit: Creative Commons / Manuel de Sousa

Museu do Carro Eléctrico opened on 18th May 1992 on the property of the Sociedade de Transportes Colectivos do Porto, S.A. to display a collection of trams and other vehicles operating on OOporto's roads since September 1895.

Oporto has been the first city in the Iberian Peninsula to own such a unique collection of trams and other support vehicles under one roof. Located in a former switching-house, the highlight of the museum is an American car, with animal traction, which circulated for the first time in Oporto in 1872.

Address: Alameda de Basílio Teles, 51, 4150-127 Oporto, Portugal
Opening Hours: Winter (15th September to 14th June)
Monday: 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm, Tuesday to Friday: 9:30 am to 6:00 pm,
Weekends and holidays: 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm

Summer (15th June to 14th September)
Monday: 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm, Tuesday to Friday: 10:00 am to 7:00 pm,
Weekends and holidays: 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Tel.: +351 226 158 185

The Centro Portugues de Fotografia is housed in a stately building that once served as a prison. It was developed by the Ministry of Culture in 1997 under the guidance of General Direction of Archives to preserve and enrich photographic heritage. Visitors have access to various collections and exhibitions comprising of Lisbon and Oporto archives, National Photography Collection and a permanent, rare collection of photographic cameras.

Address: Campo Mártires da Patria, 4150-368 Oporto
Opening Hours: Exhibition Centre
Tuesday to Friday: 10:00 am to 12:30 pm & 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Weekends: 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm

Guided Visits (previous booking required)
Tuesday to Friday: 10:00 am to 12:30 pm & 3:00 pm to 5:30 pm
Tel.: +351 222 076 310

Photo Credit: Creative Commons/Béria Lima