The 16 best museums in Porto

The Serralves Foundation’s Museum of Contemporary Art is very much on the international art map. The building alone is worth a visit – a masterpiece by Álvaro Siza Museu Romântico Vieira. It plays host to exhibitions showcasing Portuguese artists and others from around the world. These arty indoor treats are complemented by the beautiful surrounding park and the magnificent art deco house.

One of the Porto’s top museums, with a superb collections of painting, ceramics, sculpture, engravings, jewellery and goldwork, textiles and glassware from over the centuries. There are fine paintings by Portugal’s own Aurélia de Sousa, António Carneiro, Silva Porto and Henrique Pousão, as well as Flemish and Dutch masters. Other highlights include Japanese screens, Chinese porcelain, Iron Age artefacts and tons more to discover.

This fascinating museum looks at the history of medicine and pharmacology across 4,000 years and many different civilisations. Among the many exhibits are two complete pharmacies that have been literally transported to this space: Porto’s own Farmácia Eustácio and an Islamic pharmacy from a palace in Damascus. 

The National Press Museum takes visitors through the history of the country’s print media, including machinery and documents. There are rare items here, such as an eighteenth-century printing press and a manual guillotine (the paper-cutting kind, not the head-lopper) from 1900. Don’t miss the exhibition of entries to the Porto Cartoon competition that the museum hosts annually and which attracts the world’s top cartoonists. 

Porto's first House-Museum was inaugurated in 1942 and is located behind the Cathedral. The building and the collection were donated by Maria Isabel, Guerra Junqueiro's daughter, to Porto City Council, to fulfil her father's wishes. Despite being poorly publicised, it has one of the best collections of 15th to 19th century decorative arts in the country.

Simply put, this museum is actually someone's flat. Number 291, at Rua de Nossa Senhora de Fátima, would be a normal house, other than the fact that whoever gets in can see Aurélia de Sousa’s biggest collection (there’s a whole room just for her). There's also a number of other great Portuguese naturalist painters there, like José Malhoa, Marques de Oliveira and Silva Porto wrapped up in a 19th century bourgeois ambiance (it has, therefore, nothing to do with its modern exterior). There’s a library and a beautiful garden (the only thing missing is a service bar) that people can visit for free, even if they don’t want to set foot in the museum. There are guided tours for those who wish. 

It’s hard to understand Porto with knowing about its biggest football club. This museum at its Dragon Stadium tells the story of Futebol Clube do Porto step by step, using high-tech displays, rare memorabilia and unique first-hand testimony.

The history of Porto’s Santa Casa da Misericórdia – a royal- backed Catholic foundation to help the poor and needy – is told in this museum. It’s home to the ‘Fons Vitae’ (‘Fountain of Life’), a sixteenth-century Flemish masterpiece depicting the crucified Christ surrounded by earthly nobility. This shares a room with a contemporary work by sculptor Rui Chafes, created especially for the museum, which extends into the street outside. The collection also includes paintings, jewellery and historical documents, and visitors have access to the magnificent baroque Igreja da Misericórdia next door. 

In 1325, this space was Porto’s first customs building, and in 1394 it became the birthplace of Prince Henry the Navigator. After centuries of hosting royal services in Porto, the building eventually became a museum in 2001. Now, you can see the ‘Medieval Porto Model’ there, representing Porto as it was in 1500, learn about the Roman and medieval history of the riverside area, and visit its collection of hundreds of 16th and 17th century lead stamps from various countries.

The Museum of Transport and Communications has several threads to it, from the history of the building itself – once a busy customs house – to global communication, to a display of the official vehicles of Portugal’s presidents from the declaration of the Republic in 1912 to the present day. It’s also worth having a gander at a vast canvas painted by Júlio Resende that was reproduced in tile form by the entrance to the Ribeira road tunnel.

Porto’s Military Museum brings together material and onjects relating to war and military life in Portugal and Europe, with plenty of surprises along the way. One not-to-be-missed exhibit is a staggering display of 12,000 lead soldiers representing armies from around the world, from antiquity to the present day. Another is a sword said to have been owned by Dom Afonso Henriques, Portugal’s very first king. There’s also plenty of stuff for the boys: tanks, machine guns and other life-extinguishing kit.

This is not quite a museum: it is a warehouse you can visit, where many decoration and construction materials from Porto architecture are kept – stuff like tiles, stucco or cast iron. Walking through it feels as if the memories and identity of Porto's streets are captured in fragments, scattered throughout the space. Porto City Hall’s Bank of Materials gathers, restores and preserves materials from decaying or condemned buildings, with a view towards eventually giving them back to the city.

Porto’s once extensive tram network has shrunk to three 
routes, maintained for the benefit of
tourists. But the Tram Museum, inaugurated in 1992 in a former
power station and
 recently
reopened after an 
overhaul, has more. It displays models that date back a century and a half, from a horse-drawn trolley first used in 1872 to a slick 1950 tram.Oh, and there's a bonus: you get free rides on city buses and trams for four hours after you buy a museum ticket. 

You guessed it: Casa Museu Abel Salazar is all about world-renowned doctor and scientist Abel Sazar. From the original furniture and layout of his home to the history of his research work in the field of biological sciences, you'll leave an expert in the life of a man who's work got him expelled from the University of Porto by the Estado Novo.

Opened in 2013, the Marionetas do Porto is a museum dedicated to the work of director João Paulo Seara Cardoso (1956-2010), founder of the Marionetas Theatre. Here you'll find a collection of more than 30 years of the theatre, from bits of old scenery to photographs, puppets and documentaries about its shows and history.

The Galeria da Biodiversidade is found in Casa Andresen in the Botanical Gardens, and is a mixture of scientific museum and Ciência Viva Centre. The exhibition is divided into modules and distributed around the house following the concept of total museology, created by Jorge Wagensberg, who accepted an invitation from biologist Nuno Ferrand to work on this project together with designer Luís Mendonça. The result is a journey through science and art (and a little bit of literature).