Museums and Palaces

Anyone entering Barcelos via the bridge over the River Cávado will immediately see a garden where the ruins of the former Palace of the Counts of Barcelos bear witness to the city´s mediaeval past.

This is what remains of an early 15th-century construction, commissioned by D. Afonso, the eighth Count of Barcelos and the first Duke of Bragança, and it is one of the city´s most emblematic monuments.

Having the appearance of both a palace and castle, it was in its time a noble building that demonstrated the increasing wealth and power of its owner, the bastard son of D. João I. It used to stand out quite markedly in the urban landscape with its tall tubular chimneys, of which only one now remains, and the tower, which once protected the bridge over the river but has also since disappeared.

It continued to be used as the residence of the Counts until the 17th century, when it began to fall into ruins, a process that was accelerated by the 1755 earthquake. What has remained has very appropriately been used to house an open-air Archeological Museum.

Here you will find pieces that testify o the region´s settlement since prehistoric times. Mediaeval sarcophagi, heraldic symbols, boundary stones of the House of Bragança, various architectural features from dismantled churches and monasteries and sculpted blazons from former noble houses that have since disappeared are all to be found in the archaeological collection on exhibition here.

Special attention is drawn to the Cruzeiro do Senhor do Galo, a cross paying tribute to the legend of the Barcelos Cock, originating from Barcelinhos (one of the parishes of Barcelos, situated on the other side of the river), dating from the beginning of the 18th century and telling us the ancient legend of the city's most emblematic feature in low-relief carvings.