Museu de Lamego

The Museu de Lamego occupies the eighteenth-century episcopal palace beside the cathedral and is one of the better regional museums in Portugal. Its two strongest holdings are early: five panels by Vasco Fernandes, called Grão Vasco, painted around 1506 to 1511 for the cathedral's altarpiece, among the finest Portuguese painting of the period; and a set of Flemish tapestries woven in Brussels in the sixteenth century, including a series on the story of Oedipus, large, dense and in unusually good condition. Beyond those are gilded chapels removed intact from a demolished convent and reassembled inside the museum, Portuguese and Spanish painting, azulejos, sculpture and archaeology. Lamego itself sits above the Douro with the Remédios staircase climbing its hill, and the museum is a short walk from the cathedral and the town centre.

What you actually see

• The Grão Vasco panels - five works of around 1506 to 1511 from the cathedral altarpiece.
• The Brussels tapestries - a sixteenth-century Flemish set including an Oedipus series.
• The reassembled chapels - gilded interiors moved intact from a demolished convent.
• The palace - the eighteenth-century episcopal residence housing it all.

When to go

Year-round. One to two hours. Closed Mondays. Combines with the Remédios staircase and the cathedral in a day at Lamego.

Honest expectations

Tapestries and panels are shown in low light for conservation, which limits detail. Labelling is fuller in Portuguese. Douro summers are very hot. The museum is quiet, which is an advantage.

Nearby

The Santuário dos Remédios staircase is above the town; the Douro at Régua is north.