A

museum
with
history
Beginning:
..................
The first step in the creation of
the Pottery Museum in Barcelos came in 1949, when the
City Council decided to build
an underground room for
accommodating Pottery.
Intention of the opening of
the Museum took almost 15
years.The so -called " Regional
Ceramics Museum " was
inaugurated on May 4, 1963,
during the Festival of The
Crosses.On the basis of the
creation of this cultural facility
was the collection of the
ethnographer Sells Paes,
WHO donated it by himself, to
the municipality of Barcelos in
1952.

By 1982 , verifying that the

underground room of the
Palace of the Counts no
longer had the minimum
conditions to house the
collections of pottery, the City
Council decided to gain the
House of Mendanhas.After a
lengthy technical process,
the expansion project and
remodeling of the House of
Mendanhas was approved in
December 1989, the building
entered into recovery and
adaptation works in 1991.
The Pottery Museum was
inaugurated on July 29,
1995.

Missions
Recovery
& Aims:
Expanshion
& Enhancement:
...................

Fifteen years after its inauguration in July 2009, the City

Council decided to modernise
the museum, adding new
improvements at the growing
demand of the technology
and public.The works were
finished on june 2013,
after disagreements with
construction companies.The
new intervention in the House
of Mendanhas was meant to
adapt the building to the
challenges of the future.

....................

The Pottery Museums main

mission is to protect, study,
and document collections of
pottery that are part of its
compilation. The museum also
promotes, supports and assists
in studying and preserving the
heritage of pottery production
centres in Portugal. It also
serves as a tourist attraction
and as a complex ceramics
dictionary , good for cultural
and artistic enrichment.

ROOMS:
Chapel Room

Repair and restoration

room

A versatile room, able to

receive temporary exhibitions
of renowned potters/ sculptors/ceramists.
...................

The museum has an area

equipped with tools suited for
restoring and conserving
ceramic objects.
...................

Temporary exhibitions
room

Documentation centre

The temporary exhibitions

room is a great attraction of
the Museum because it
allows the rotation of its
collection and of other projects developed by the
Museum.
...................
Permanent Exhibition
Room
The permanent exhibition is
very valuable for the
Museum, as is allows a
geographical journey of
potteries from different
regions of Portugal.
...................
Reserve collection room
The collection of the Pottery
Museum consists of over
9,000 objects, from all over
the country, and other regions
of the world.the room has all
proper conditions in terms of
environment and climate.

The Documentation Centre of

Pottery gathers a vast number
of documents and it is divided into two main areas:
ceramics and ethnography. It
aims to safeguard and
manage the documental
collections of the Museum
and support the work of
researchers found in a wide
ranging library.
...................
Workshop rooms
Rooms destined for recreational and educational
activities, developed by the
Educational and Animation
Department of the Museum,
suitable for children.