Bank of Materials

Maybe it sounds unbelievable but Porto Bank of Materials is a Bank that doesn’t store money. It stores design artifacts like ancient Muslim stile tiles, Tromp D´Oil statues and elaborated ceilings. Let’s add historical urban furniture, and ancient parts of medieval, Renaissance and baroque buildings. A broad public opens museum as a connected institution. With the city’s architecture and building business they execute material loans or donations for historical house building reconstructions.

🕰️ Historical Note

Pinpoint the historical Palacete dos Viscondes de Balsemão in Porto City Center, an ancient noble palace where the city hall established the materials bank and museum. Inside, we can appreciate exquisite tiles from the XIV century until the XX century. All highly achieved designs from centuries ago hide from public sight.

📍How to get there

The place, a jewelry vault of Porto design, sits on Praça Carlos Alberto. It’s near the Reitoria da Universidade do Porto in the Central Oporto District. For those who walk around the city center, it is accessible by foot and public transportation.

by walking from Avenida dos Aliados. bus [300, 305, 703] tram [18]

🎯Interesting fact

A great deal of the Bank of Materials artifacts survived an attempt of destruction by the museum when ancient houses, palaces, and public spaces were demolished.

💡Travel Tip

For those exploring  Porto, especially on a Free walking tour of the city, Bank of Materials is an interesting museum to enjoy the Porto city building and urban design history.