Porto City Parks – Parque de Serralves

Parque de Serralves, located in Boavista neighborhood and very close to Parque da Cidade, has a perfect fusion between contemporary art, architecture and beautiful gardens.

Close to the main entrance, facing Avenida Marechal Gomes da Costa, you can find Casa de Serralves, an amazing example of Art Déco, signed by a few different architects, the most famous was Porto’s son, Marques da Silva. Surrounding the house, a curious and unique garden from the 1930’s designed by Jacques Gréber on a classic modernist style.

A garden that combines water, green spaces and trees by Jacques Gréber

Jacques Gréber’s modernist garden

The rest of the park has beautiful romantic style period gardens, with lush vegetation zones, wooded walks, caves and a lake. In the grounds central part, next to the tennis court you can find Casa de Chá (Tea house), a relaxed environment with a varied menu of teas, natural fruit and cakes. Further away, on the South corner, there’s an area with animals and gardens that receive visits from school groups and families.

A red trowel stands at the entrance of the park

Plantoir, 2001 – Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen.

Currently, the house and garden are part of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Serralves and, since the 90’s the museum is housed in a building designed by Pritzker Prize winner, Álvaro Siza Vieira, one of the most important representatives of the Porto School of Architecture. Serralves is the most important museum of contemporary art in Portugal and a benchmark internationally, with a collection that begins in the 60s of XX century and is updated continuously.

Different size light bulbs hanging in front of a generous window that shows the green park

The gardens from inside the museum building

It is in this amazing and privileged environment that, once a year in late May, is celebrated Serralves em Festa, a non-stop party with performance, music, dance and theater. In the last weekend of September is held Festa do Outono, a party celebrating Autumn with a lot of activities for families and children.

A man dressed in black balances bird cages

Algures (Somewhere) – Theatre during Serralves em Festa 2015

Entrance to the park costs €4 and Museum+Park €8.5, but on Sundays, you can visit the gardens and museum for free, between 10h to 13h.

Admissions:

October and March: from 3rd to 6th 10-18h, Saturdays and Sundays 10-19h, close on the second.

October to March: Tuesday to Friday 10h-18h, Saturdays and Sundays 10h-19h, closes on Mondays.

April to September: Tuesday to Friday 10h-19h, Saturdays and Sundays 10h-20h; Monday museum and house closed, park open.