Museu de Portimão, Portimão
Portimão Museum
The Museu de Portimão (Portimão Museum) is located on the riverfront in Portimão in the converted 19th/20th century São Francisco sardine and mackerel canning factory.
The Museu de Portimão has been expanded and modernized and as well as exhibits on the area's archaeology has a superb interactive recreation of the production lines and the daily working life in the sardine cannery during its heyday, utilizing extensive video and sound effects within the original, restored space.
History
The canning factory that became the Museu de Portimão was purchased by the municipality in 1998 and the modern museum we see today was opened in 2008.
The Museu de Portimão Museum traces the history and culture of the people of the area in the permanent exhibition entitled "Portimão, Territory and Identity."
Exhibits
Archaeological and historical exhibits on display include items from prehistoric times, through the Visigothic, Roman and Moorish periods and include original amphorae, household ceramics and mosaics. Further exhibits focus on the period of Portuguese history from the 15th-18th centuries when wooden shipbuilding was a major industry in the Algarve. A number of cannon and other armaments date from this period.
The production of dried fruit, especially figs, has long been a major industry in the area and is highlighted in a section of its own.
Portimão's most famous son, the businessman, writer and diplomat, Manuel Teixiera Gomes, who was also President of the Republic between 1923 and 1925, also has a section of the museum devoted to him.
The main emphasis of the Museu de Portimão, however, is very much the sardine canning industry and the process involved from the landing of the catch, the preparation of the fish for canning, the actual canning of the fish and finally the promotion of Portimão's sardines to the rest of the world.
The Museu de Portimão also holds temporary exhibitions such as a 2016 retrospective on the 1st Algarve Regional Congress, held at the Casino Praia da Rocha in Portimão in 1915, as well as smaller exhibitions of the work of local artists.
The former factory's cistern, which was used to collect rainwater, has been transformed into a viewing centre ("Under the Waters") to see moving images of the underwater life in the Arade River and the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Portimão on artificial reefs created around four sunken Portuguese naval vessels.
Museu de Portimão also has a documentation centre and historical archive with a large number of historical documents available to researchers, a cafe and luggage lockers.
Access & Hours
Museu de Portimão (museudeportimao.pt; Portuguese & English)
Portimão Museum, Rua D. Carlos I
8500-607 Portimão, Portugal
Tel: (+351) 28 240 5230/265.
Hours: 1 September to 31 July:
Tuesday from 2.30 pm to 6 pm
Wednesday to Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm
1 to 31 August (summer opening times)
Tuesday from 7.30 pm to 11 pm
Wednesday to Sunday from 3 pm to 11 pm
Closed: Monday, Tuesday (until 2.30 pm) and on National Public Holidays.
Admission: 3 Euros (free for teachers and children up to 15).
The Blue and Pink lines of the Vai e Vem shuttle bus stop outside the museum. The Museu de Portimão is very close to the Big Wheel and the bus station area for buses to Faro, Albufeira, Lagos and Silves.
