Museu do Relógio

The Museu do Relógio (Clock Museum) is a private museum of mechanical clocks and watches in Serpa, a whitewashed hill town in the lower Alentejo. It opened to the public in 1995, in the Convento do Mosteirinho, a 16th-century convent built in the Manueline style, right next to Praça da República in the old town. The museum spreads across ten rooms, with the Alentejo’s traditional terracotta floor tiles under whitewashed walls and vaulted ceilings.

It has a second branch in Évora with its own rooms and a restoration workshop on show; see the Museu do Relógio in Évora. This page is about the main museum in Serpa.

The story is a good one to tell children on the way. In 1972 António Tavares d’Almeida inherited three broken pocket watches from his grandparents. He set out to get them repaired, then kept searching for clocks and watches all over Portugal and the world so he could restore them. In 1995 he opened his collection to the public in Serpa. Since then people have donated nearly 400 broken clocks to the museum, and its master watchmakers have repaired them so they can go on display. After his death in 2012, his son Eugénio took over as director.

The museum still runs a restoration workshop where its watchmakers repair pocket watches, wristwatches, mantel clocks and wall clocks for collectors from Portugal and abroad.

The collection is all mechanical, meaning every piece works with springs, weights, gears and escapements rather than batteries. The museum says it holds more than 2,300 pieces across its two sites, dating from 1630 to today: pocket watches, wristwatches, wall clocks, mantel clocks and more. Children who like cogs will enjoy the sheer number of ticking faces and swinging pendulums; the room is never quite silent.

Among the famous watchmaking names on display are Vacheron Constantin (founded in 1755), Patek Philippe, Breitling and Rolex. The museum also has a clock by Edward East, watchmaker to the English royal court, who died in 1670. One room is devoted to clocks made in Portugal, and it hosts changing themed exhibitions. The museum’s website also points out a set of curious mechanisms in the permanent display, such as a pedometer.

Outside the rooms there is a small garden, a café-bar and a library of more than 600 books about clocks and watches.

The museum’s own timeline makes a good family conversation before or after the visit. The first sundials appeared around 3000 BC in Egypt, China and Mesopotamia. Later came water clocks, which the Greeks called clepsydras (“water thieves”), candle clocks and sand-glasses. The first mechanical clocks, from around 1260, had only an hour hand, because they were not accurate enough for a minute hand to be worth having. Portugal’s first recorded mechanical clock was installed in Lisbon Cathedral in 1377. Minute hands spread once mechanisms became more precise, and seconds hands came later still. The cuckoo clock appeared in the Black Forest around 1730, and quartz watches, run by a vibrating crystal, arrived in the late 1960s.

Children who spot a clock with a single hand in the museum can then work out for themselves how old it might be.

The museum opens Tuesday to Friday from 14:00 to 17:30, and on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 10:00 to 12:30 and 14:00 to 17:30. It is closed on Mondays, 25 December and 1 January. The regional tourism board lists slightly earlier closing times, so aim to arrive well before 17:00. Each year the Serpa museum closes for about a week in January and in July, when the Évora branch stays open; the dates are posted on the museum’s website.

Ticket prices were not published on the museum’s website when checked in September 2026. Phone 284 543 194 before you go if the price matters.

This is a museum for looking, not touching: the pieces are old and delicate. It suits calm children and those already curious about how clocks work. Very active children may be done in half an hour, and toddlers are best kept in a carrier. On weekdays it only opens in the afternoon, which works well in summer, when Alentejo mornings are better spent outdoors and early afternoons are hot.

South of Serpa, near Mértola, is the abandoned copper mine at Mina de São Domingos. Children who liked the machines might enjoy the mining site at Parque Mineiro de Aljustrel. For the other half of the collection, visit the Évora branch.

Is the Serpa clock museum good for children?

Yes for children who like machines or history and can look without touching. Allow about an hour.

Is it open on Mondays?

No. It is closed on Mondays, and on weekdays it only opens in the afternoon.

How much does it cost?

Prices were not published online when checked in September 2026. Phone the museum before you go.

What is the difference between the Serpa and Évora museums?

Serpa is the main museum, with ten rooms, a garden, a café-bar and a library. Évora is a smaller branch with two rooms and a restoration workshop on display.