Silves Archeology Museum

Silves Archaeological Museum
© C.M. Silves
Silves museum
© C.M. Silves
Museu Municipal de Arqueologia de Silves
© C.M. Silves

Museu Municipal de Arqueologia

Silves's small Archaeological Museum contains an astonishingly well-preserved Moorish well, together with archaeological findings dating right back to prehistoric times.

Opened in 1990, the Municipal Museum of Archeology of Silves is built around the Poço-Cisterna Almóada - a 12th century well which was discovered after archaeological excavations in the 18th century. The well is now classified as a National Monument and forms the centerpiece of the museum. The museum also incorporates the city walls of the same period, thus creating not only as a museum, but a showcase of the Islamic heritage in Portugal.

The museum's collections, mostly from excavations in the city and surrounds, brings together a group of objects from the Paleolithic, passing through the Neolithic, the Chalcolithic, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age up to the Roman and the Medieval periods. There is a focus on the Muslim occupation from the 8th to the 13th century which are proof of the city's richness and importance in that historical period.

The collection also includes important objects from the modern period - 15th to 17th centuries - that show the influence of trade routes and the importance of the city's exchanges and contacts with other regions of the globe.

Divided into eight thematic sections, the collections can be visited chronologically from the Palaeolithic to the 17th century.

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