A museum born amid political upheaval, this is Portugal’s oldest public art museum, dating from 1833. It began as Museu Portuense under King Peter IV, with religious art removed from convents and works seized from Miguel I’s absolutist followers. The collection did not always live in this grand setting: Carrancas Palace had been the home of Manuel Mendes de Morais e Castro, and the museum moved here in 1942.
The conversion turned former factory workshops into a naturally lit painting gallery and a separate sculpture gallery. Its current name arrived in 1911, honouring the Porto sculptor António Soares dos Reis. A major part of his work belongs here, including the marble sculpture O Desterrado, the museum’s signature piece.
Beyond that single masterpiece, the holdings exceed 18,000 objects: paintings and drawings, sculpture, prints, furniture, ceramics, glass, metalwork, jewellery, textiles and archaeology. It is a remarkably broad portrait of Portuguese art and making, especially across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. If you are visiting, the museum opens Tuesday from 2 to 6, and Wednesday to Sunday from 10 to 6; it closes on 1 January, 1 May and 1 December.
.JPG){kind=link}