© Eco Sapiens
CLOCK
MUSEUM
The Clock Museum, in Serpa, is a special space, the only one in the Iberian Peninsula and one of five museums worldwide dedicated to this theme. Its impressive collection includes more than 2,300 timepieces, created between 1630 and the present day, from pocket watches to wrist watches and grandfather clocks.
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© Shortfuse
© Shortfuse
© CMS
IT ALL BEGAN IN 1972
when Serpa’s António Tavares d'Almeida (1948-2012), the founder and first director of this museum, inherited three broken pocket watches from his grandparents. That was the start of his passion for collecting clocks and watches and of his search for timepieces all over the country and the world, in order to restore them and add to his collection. This vast collection includes very unique items, such as the watch Neil Armstrong wore in June 1969, at the time of his first trip to the Moon.
In 1995 António Tavares d'Almeida opened his collection to the public, and since then hundreds of clocks have been donated to the Museum, where, with the help of master watchmakers, they are recovered and exhibited. In 2011 the Clock Museum opened a branch in Évora, at the Barrocal Palace.
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This legacy is now the responsibility of Eugénio Tavares d'Almeida, the founder’s son, who shares his father’s passion and devotion to collecting, researching and restoring mechanical clocks and watches. He is currently the museum’s director and curator.
The museum is housed in ten rooms of the Mosteirinho Convent, a sixteenth-century building of beautiful design that combines the best of local vernacular architecture. The exhibition space is completed by a restoration and repair workshop (a service also available for those who need it for their own timepieces), a small garden, a cafeteria and a library.
The museum has been designing and producing its own line of mechanical watches since 1999. Wrist and pocket watches, in limited editions, for admirers of these precise objects.
All visits to the Museum are guided, in Portuguese, Spanish, English, French, Italian or German.
ADDRESS
Convento do Mosteirinho
(Junto à Praça da República)
7830-341 SERPA
GPS
GPS 39º23’59’’56N, 8º1’18’’03W
HOURS
Tuesday do Friday
from 14h00 to 17h00
Saturday, Sunday and Holidays
from 10h00 to 12h30 and 14h00 to 17h00
CLOSED
Monday, 25th December, 1st January
PHONE
00351 284 543 194
WEB
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