Fundação Museu do Douro

The Douro Museum as a territory museum has the mission of preserving, valuing and disseminating the testimonies of the material and immaterial culture of the people who built the landscape of Douro, consecrated to the status of World Heritage by UNESCO as a cultural, evolutionary and living landscape.

The headquarters of the Douro Museum is located in the city of Peso da Régua, the result of the rehabilitation of one of the most emblematic buildings in the history of the Douro Demarcated Region of the XVIII century - Casa da Companhia, classified as a Monument of Public Interest. Combining tradition and modernity, it assumes itself as a collective space of memory and identity of the wine region, in constant dialogue with the present, and simultaneously, as an instrument of valorization of the activities associated with winemaking, cultural tourism and wine tourism.

It is constituted by a central space - Exhibition Area -, where the permanent exhibition "Douro: Matéria e Espírito" is installed. Conceived as a great temporal and geographical synthesis of the Douro Demarcated Region, this exhibition was designed and structured as a road map that acts as a "gateway" for those who visit the region. Singular characteristics of the geomorphology of the region, determining historical factors and the ingenuity of Man established the foundations of the specialization of this territory in the wine production that are expressed with monumentally in the transformation of the landscape. It is the combination of natural and human factors, of ancestry and modernity, of tradition, technology and transformation, which Douro: Matéria e Espírito exposes.

In the surroundings of this exhibition space is the Restaurant "A Companhia", the Store, the Archive, the Library, the Reading Room, Conservation and Restoration, Wine Bar and Esplanade in the Garden overlooking the Douro River. In the contiguous space is another building of modern architecture covered with panels of black schist, where the Educational Service is located.

The recognition of the work and action developed by the Douro Museum, which has deserved an excellent reception by the community and the national and international public that visit it, and the distinctions and awards attributed over the last years - with special emphasis on the Special Mention of the European Museum of the Year 2011 (EMYA) Award and the Best of Wine Tourism Global Award 2015 - Great Wine Capitals in the category of "Best Experience in Art and Culture", given by the Great Wine Capitals Global Network, which distinguished the excellence of the Museum of the Douro as a cultural and tourist reference museum that contributes to a greater knowledge and pride of the identity of the Douro Demarcated Region, the APOM 2015 National Prize in the category of "Best Cultural Extension Service / Educational Services", which emphasized not only innovative themes, but also the presentation of expository content with the use of are inevitably a major challenge, giving us more reason to continue with the work in the areas of valorization and interpretation of the heritage resources of the Douro Demarcated Region, the dynamization of the Douro Museums Network and technical support for artistic and cultural promotion, and the articulation with other creative and innovative projects.