Interpretive Heritage Center of Afurada
The Interpretive Heritage Center of Afurada (Centro Interpretativo do Património da Afurada) in Afurada, Porto is a a free, two story museum packed with exhibits donated by the local people detailing the lives of the village's inhabitants, which for hundreds of years has been centered on fishing and the sea.
Exhibits include traditional, wooden fishing boats, ropes, buoys, model ships, clothing, original photographs, paintings, sketches, a collection of sea shells and information on the local wildlife in the Douro estuary.
Some of the items of particular interest include brightly colored, hand-painted lunch boxes that sailors would take with them on a voyage, radio sets from the 1950's, compasses and other ships' instruments.
Once a warehouse, the Heritage Center of Afurada (Centro Interpretativo do Património da Afurada), has a modern, spacious and artistic feel and provides an ethnological background to a visit to the village.
The successful transformation of the old, red-painted fishing warehouses, used for the storage of fishing gear such as nets and tackle, into a modern museum was undertaken by the architects Alexandre Alves Costa and Sergio Fernandez (Atelier 15).
There is a small shop selling hand-made clothes and accessories in the museum.
Many of the exhibits have explanations in English as well as Portuguese.
Access - getting to Afurada
R. António dos Santos 10, 4400-554 Vila Nova de Gaia
Tel: 22 781 2724
parquebiologico.pt
The Interpretive Heritage Center of Afurada is open daily from 10 am - 12.30 pm and 1.30 pm - 6 pm.
Admission is free.
Afurada is a traditional fishing village in Porto, south of the River Douro, a little way west of the port wine lodges of Vila Nova de Gaia.
To get from Porto to Afurada take a taxi over the Ponte da Arrábida or ride the Porto metro over the Ponte Luis I Bridge to Jardim do Morro Station, direction Santo Ovidio, just one stop from Sao Bento Station. Then take a local bus #93 or #96 west to Afurada.
The fun way to get to and from Afurada is to take the very cheap ferry from Fonte de Ouro a couple of minutes across the river to the boat pier just east of Interpretive Heritage Center of Afurada.
The boat runs Monday to Saturday 6 am-9 pm and Sunday 8 am-9 pm. UpdateThe ferry ceased operations in November 2020 though there is pressure from local residents on both banks to restart the service.
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