Museum of Art and Archeology - Viana do Castelo

The 18th-century palace, was designed by Manuel Fernandes da Silva Felgueiras for the residence of Canon Antônio Lima , which was later bought by João Barbosa Maciel Teixeira (whose coat of arms shines on the facade).

In 1922 it was bought by the town hall to establish this museum.

The museum consists of two buildings connected by a courtyard:

- A new building was constructed at the rear in 1993.

- A third building, the Casa dos Nichos , located on Rua Viana (in the heart of the historic centre), has housed since March 2008 an educational virtual classroom related to the city's archaeological museum.

The museum has two floors:
- The first floor is dedicated to archaeology , where you can see various pieces recovered during excavations, as well as stone heraldic shields, bronze objects, various pieces of pottery from the pre-Roman period, and so on.
- On the upper floor, a typical Portuguese mansion has been reconstructed, where you can see the different rooms with 18th century furniture, photographs and paintings from the 16th to the 19th century, and all kinds of reconstructed goods. One of the most beautiful rooms is decorated with tiled panels in blue tones with hunting scenes and mythology. The palace also has its own chapel.

There is also a room with an exhibition on weights and measures (the different measuring instruments used in the Middle Ages) and in the new part of the building there was a temporary exhibition dedicated to the sculptor Aleixo de Queiroz.

willem vandenameele