PORTO - Portugal - page 351

formed, the government bought them the house and surrounding land to encourage them
to pursue their goals. A decade later, in 1999, the museum opened.
CostandHours: €3 for park/mansion only, €7 for museum, park, and mansion; April-
Sept Tue-Fri 10:00-17:00, park open until 19:00, Sat-Sun 10:00-19:00; Oct-March Tue-
Sun 10:00-17:00; closed Mon year-round; tel. [phone], www.serralves.pt .
Eating: The museum's restaurant serves a lunch buffet from 12:00-15:00 (€13 Tue-
Fri, €16 Sat-Sun, closed Mon). Coffee and snacks are available until 19:00 (17:00 in
winter).
Getting There: The complex is about 1.5 miles west of the city center in a wealthy
residential neighborhood at Rua Dom João de Castro 210, just south of the busy Avenida
da Boavista. From the center, you can reach it most easily via taxi or on a hop-on, hop-off
bus tour. Public bus service isn't great, but you can take bus #203 to the Serralves stop
(less convenient from downtown—the most central place to catch it is at the big Boavista
Rotunda near Casa da Música).
Visiting the Museum and Park: The museum presents temporary exhibits by Por-
tuguese and global artists. The enormous, blocky U-shaped building was designed by
prominent Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza, who was greatly inspired by the existing
mansion. As in most important contemporary-art museums, its vast white exhibition
spaces are modified to suit the art displayed (windows and walls continually disappear
and reappear).
The park around the museum has been designed very carefully to compartmentalize
each section; when you're in one part of the grounds, you can't see the rest. This is a very
peaceful, romantic place to wander. Hiding in here somewhere are a pleasant rose garden,
a tea house overlooking a former tennis court, a lake, a small farm with animals, a garden-
ing school, and Casa de Serralves itself.
The house (Casa de Serralves) is, for many, the most interesting part of the whole
experience: a huge pink Art Deco mansion that looks like the home of an Old Hollywood
star. On two sides, long manicured hedges and fountains stretch to the horizon. Look for
the private chapel in back—also pink Art Deco. You can usually go inside the house to
check out the cavernous interior. As you step through the fancy gate inside the living
room, remember that in the last century, someone actually lived here. Ponder how the
design of this place is reflected in the museum. The best part is upstairs: the mirrored,
pink-marbled bathroom, dramatically overlooking the grounds.
House of Music (Casa da Música) —This landmark 1,200-seat concert hall opened in
2005. The angular, white concrete building with rippling glass windows was designed by
the firm of Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, called OMA, which also built Seattle's Central
Library. Contemporary-architecture fans will find it at the big Boavista Rotunda northw-