Museu Militar do Porto
Museum
The Oporto Military Museum is currently an institution that aims to preserve military history. The Museum is now housed in an old 19th century dwelling house, which was once the headquarters of PIDE-DGS.
The creation of this museum was based on the civil will to group and show the collection created by the Portuguese painter Joaquim Vitorino Ribeiro, who dedicated himself to collecting pieces and documents that were part of the French invasions and the liberal wars, which was initially opened in 1920 in the Castle of São João da Foz, in the centenary of the liberal revolution.
In 1980 the official inauguration of the Oporto Military Museum, in the present facilities, is being since then available to the public.
The pieces of this museum come from both private and army supplies, both of historical and museological interest. The exhibition is made up of collections of light weapons, equipment, uniforms and heavy artillery that were part of the Portuguese army from the 16th century until the mid-20th century. However, the ex-libris of this museum is the collection of about 16,000 miniatures of soldier soldiers that addresses the evolution of the soldier from prehistory to the contemporary era.