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This highly entertaining ethnographic museum brings together a fantastic collection of oddities, rarities and priceless treasures. See Highlights of Lagos Museu Municipal.

Set within the cloisters of the former convent of Nossa Senhora da Assunção, this museum is one of the most beautiful in the Algarve. A giant Roman floor mosaic, fragments of a Moorish bowl inscribed with “Allah” and a gallery devoted to 16th-century Italian paintings are just some of the highlights.

A first-rate modern museum and historic Roman site rolled into one, Cerro da Vila is an outstanding example of a 2nd-century villa complex, complete with sunken baths, salt tanks, a burial tower and brilliant black-and-white patterned mosaics. The adjacent museum houses a superb display of Roman, Visigoth and Moorish artifacts.

This excellent museum is unique in Portugal for its astonishing 12th-century Arab well-cistern. Unearthed by chance in 1980, it is the star exhibit around which the entire building is constructed. An original staircase (closed to the public) incorporated into the ancient structure descends 15 m (49 ft) to the bottom of the well.

This delightful rural ensemble of local costumes, papier-mâché dolls, decorated carriages and traditional handicraft is aptly housed in a wonderful country mansion. Particularly poignant is a child’s faded tunic and breeches displayed next to a photograph of one José Maria Féria wearing the same costume in 1929.

Silves’ cork museum and factory highlights the impact this abundant and versatile bark has had on the town through a series of huge photographic panels, themed exhibitions and displays of early 20th-century machinery housed in converted workshops.

Loulé’s archaeological heritage is admirably chronicled with displays of Stone Age, Bronze Age and Roman artifacts. Upstairs, history is closer to the present day, with a reconstruction of a traditional Algarve kitchen, replete with 19th-century crockery and a wornxarém , or maize wheel.

Carlos Porfirio’s dramatic oil painting of wild-eyed fishermen drawing a huge net over a shoal of desperate, thrashing tuna overlooks this spirited exhibition of nautical paraphernalia. The scale models of caravels, galleons and steamboats are wonderful.

The view from the this modern museum looks out to the ocean, while inside is a modest but fascinating collection of Stone Age, Roman and Moorish artifacts. The 10th-century Arab silo is worth close scrutiny, as are the set of weathered 16th-century keystones.

A museum showcasing the work of Portugal’s greatest wood engraver of the 20th century, Manuel Cabanas (1902–95). A truly dynamic volume of work is exhibited: ink-relief images of politicians, statesmen, writers and musicians, plus views of everyday rural life.