© Vasco Neves
MUNICIPAL
MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGY
The module of the Municipal Museum of Archaeology dedicated to the Territory was recently updated and offers visitors a renewed exhibition model that reveals the most ancient origins of this beautiful municipality. Come and discover it!
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LOCATED IN THE CASTLE OF SERPA AND RESTORED BETWEEN 2011 AND 2015
with the aid of InAlentejo (QREN) and IGESPAR project, the Municipal Museum of Archaeology now includes, in the citadel area, a space for permanent exhibition, a multipurpose space that doubles as a small auditorium and temporary exhibition room and a café/bar with a terrace. This project was complemented by the consolidation of the construction system and the enhancement of the Wall Walk that runs along the walls of the Castle of Serpa, as part of the strategy of protection of Serpa’s important historical and cultural heritage. The exterior area is equipped with an elevator that makes the Museum and the Wall Walk accessible to anyone.
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In addition to the exhibition modules, showcases and panels (with illustrations, photographs, texts and captions), the museography adopted chose new technologies (through tactile and interactive screens), images and cinema as a preferred method of communication and interaction with the general public. A film by the director João Botelho is in permanent screening in one of the rooms; its main goal is to tell through words but, above all, through the moving image, the history of a place - of a Territory, the municipality of Serpa - where Human Beings have been settling throughout time, leaving their mark and cultural identity, visible in the archaeological findings.
This municipal museum consists of two modules, the Historical Evolution of the City module, to be implemented in Rua da Barbacã, and the Territory module, installed in the Castle’s citadel and that now offers a contemporary image, both in terms of its physical space and of its exhibition model.
The renewed collection integrates some of the most recent local archaeological finds as well as pieces from private collections.
The ground floor displays traces of the more distant past of this territory, with the exhibition of artefacts from Pre-history to the Iron Age, from objects of daily use to items of funeral and symbolic use.
Along the central table are exhibited archaeological finds and, on the sides, are presented the main organizing themes that help interpret the whole collection, such as settlement networks, natural resources and community life, the funeral and sacred dimension. The display includes menhirs, dolmens, underground graves, false-dome funerary monuments and carved stones.
In the upper floor, the exhibition space is dedicated to the Roman Period, Late Antiquity and the Islamic Period; the illustrations on the panels placed throughout the rooms give life and meaning to the artefacts displayed in the showcases and to the architectural elements arranged along the central axis. To move from the Roman period to Late Antiquity the visitor goes through a room that holds pieces related to the world of the dead, where their stories come to us through loudspeakers.
Finally, the museum offers a space dedicated to Late Antiquity, which includes vestiges related to the advent of Christianity in the region. Just before leaving the museum, visitors find testimonies of the Islamic legacy in an assortment of objects and discover the meaning of the voice in Arabic that is activated as they walk by.
Come and explore this important legacy in a renovated museum.
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© Vasco Neves
ADDRESS
Alcáçova do Castelo – 7830 Serpa
HOURS
Tuesday to Sunday
Winter: from 9h00 to 12h00 and 14h00 to 17.00h
Summer: from 9h30 to 12h30 and 14h00 to 17.30h
PHONE
00351 284 544 663