Museum sights in Porto
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A
Museu de Arte Contemporânea
In a leafy, upscale suburb off the grand Avenida Boavista, is Porto's other great work of contemporary architecture. Designed by eminent, Porto-based architect Álvaro Siza Vieira, the Museu de Arte Contemporânea is an arrestingly minimalist construction of vast, whitewashed spaces bathed in natural light.
Most of the museum is devoted to cutting edge exhibitions, though there's also a fine permanent collection featuring works from the late 1960s to the present by the likes of Georg Baselitz, Ed Ruscha and Gerhard Richter. Nearby is Casa de Serralves, a pink 1930s Art Deco mansion that served as the original museum and is now an exhibition space. Surrounding it all is th…
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B
Museu Nacional Soares Dos Reis
A short walk west of Cordoaria lands you at Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis. The town’s most comprehensive art collection, it ranges from Neolithic carvings to Portugal’s take on modernism and is housed in the formidable Palácio das Carrancas. Requisitioned by Napoleonic invaders, the neoclassical palace was abandoned so rapidly that the future Duke of Wellington found an unfinished banquet in the dining hall. Transformed into a museum of fine and decorative arts in 1940, its best works date from the 19th century, including sculpture by António Soares dos Reis (see especially his famous O Desterrado, The Exile) and António Teixeira Lopes, and the naturalistic paintin…
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C
Igreja da Misericórdia
North of the square on the distinctly Parisian Rua das Flores, you’ll find the rococo facade of the Igreja da Misericórdia, designed by the Italian baroque architect Nicolau Nasoni. Now a museum, the church shelters the superb Renaissance painting known as Fons Vitae (Fountain of Life), showing Dom Manuel I and his family around a fountain of blood from the crucified Christ.
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D
Parque de Serralves
The marvellous, 18-hectare Parque de Serralves is host to the Museum of Contemporary Art. From lily ponds and formal fountains to a blood-red sculpture of intriguingly oversized pruning sheers, these gardens are well worth a visit in their own right. The estate and museum are 4km west of the city centre; take bus 78 from Praça da Liberdade or bus 21 from the Casa da Música metro stop.
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E
Museu Do Vinho Do Porto
Down by the river in a remodelled warehouse, the modest Museu do Vinho do Porto explores the impact of the famous tipple on the region’s history in a series of largely interactive displays, though it doesn’t offer much insight into the wine itself.
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F
Museu Do Carro Eléctrico
Housed in a former switching-house, it displays dozens of beautifully restored old trams.
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