Google Maps: 
October to April: The Côa Museum is open from 09:00 to 17:30.
May to September: The Côa Museum is open from 09:00 to 18:00.
Closing days: 1 January, 1 May and 25 December. The museum is also closed on Mondays from 1 November to 31 March.
+351 279 768 260 / +351 965 778 799
Matriz de Vila Nova de Foz Coa Church and Ruins do Prazo
Canada do Inferno and Penascosa
The Côa Museum does not fit in a traditional museology approach made of ‘collections’. (except for a few selected pieces). The rock art collection can be appreciated in the exhibition through replicas of engraved panels and interactive informationThe exhibition area is divided into several rooms, that have been digitally renewed in December of 2019:Using augmented and virtual reality, the aim of this renovation is to bring the societies that produced these artistic motifs closer to visitors. To questions such as “Who were the Coa artists?”, “How did they live?”, “Why Coa?” or “Why did they produce the rock art?” The rooms are: A – Highlights the Côa as a World Heritage Site, offering a panoramic view of the valley and its rock art also illustrating the long geological process of landscape formation.B – Details the ancestral way of life in the Côa Valley, exhibiting some of the stone tools recovered in the excavation of Paleolithic human occupation sites in the region.C – Discusses rock art explanation theories giving special consideration to the specific characteristics of the Côa Valley art.D – Offers an interactive exploration of the archaic sanctuary located in the ample natural amphitheatre formed by the Penascosa and Quinta da Barca sites.E – Showcases a replica of Rock 1 of Fariseu and the portable art also from the Upper Paleolithic unearthed during the excavation of this site.F – Besides comparing the art from different Ice Age periods, also addresses the rock art of more recent epochs, such as the Iron Age. G – Alberto Carneiro presents Mandala-Tree for the Côa Engravers, a sculpture that develops like a Mandala and whose quadrants correspond to the relations between Art-Life / Nature-Culture. This rooms also pays homage to those who fought for the preservation of the rock art, by the construction of a dam in the Coa River.The Côa Museum also has three temporary exhibition rooms.
The Côa Museum offers to the public:
• Audioguides
• Meeting point guided visit (3)
• Guided visits for organized groups
The discovery of the great rock art of the Vale do Côa dates back to 1991, when the area was archaeologically surveyed during the construction of a hydroelectric dam. Currently, more than a thousand engraved representations from the Upper Paleolithic are known, featuring aurochs, horses, mountain goats, and deer, among other species, as well as non-figurative signs and lines. Most of the engravings have been made on vertical rock outcrops. There are also manifestations of recent prehistory (Neolithic – Metal Ages), with zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures and lines of uncertain interpretation.
Opened in 2010, the Côa Museum was designed by Camilo Rebelo and Tiago Pimentel, a team of architects from Porto. Its design is based on the idea that “the Paleolithic art of the Côa Valley is perhaps the first manifestation of the artistic movement known as ‘land art’ (art of the earth or landscape). One of the largest museums in Portugal, it sits gracefully at the mouth of the Côa River where it flows into the majestic Douro, celebrating the meeting of the region’s two world heritage sites: the Prehistoric Art of the Côa Valley and the Wine Landscape of the Douro.
The Museum of Côa is a unique and enormous building located in a privileged location overlooking the confluence of the Douro and Côa rivers. The building has the following resources: an auditorium, a permanent exhibition, temporary exhibition rooms, a library specialised in rock art, an information point for specialised consultation on the themes exhibited, a cafeteria, a shop and a restaurant. The central theme of the permanent exhibition is the Upper Palaeolithic in the Côa Valley, the daily life and the great rock art developed in the rocky outcrops of the area.
