Explore Vila Nova de Gaia

The Misericórdia of Porto Museum, opened in 2015, occupies the Rua das Flores building that was the seat of the city's Santa Casa da Misericórdia charity from the 16th century until 2013. Its collection includes the Flemish panel Fons Vitae, and the visit takes in the church, with a baroque façade by Nicolau Nasoni, and an iron-and-glass gallery of 1890.

World of Discoveries is an interactive exhibition on the Portuguese voyages of discovery between 1415 and 1543, set in former Real Companhia Velha warehouses in Miragaia near the Douro. Opened in 2014, it has life-size sets, navigation instruments and maps, and a boat ride along a water channel past scenes of Africa, India, Brazil, China and Japan.

The Soares dos Reis National Museum was founded in 1833 as the Museu Portuense and is Portugal's first national art museum. Since 1942 it has occupied the neoclassical Carrancas Palace of the late 18th century, and its collection of Portuguese painting, sculpture, furniture, ceramics and metalwork includes works by the sculptor António Soares dos Reis, after whom it is named.

Neonia is an immersive museum on Rua de Ceuta in central Porto, with 20 rooms over 1,500 square metres on two floors. The rooms are named after places and traditions of the city, such as the Bolhão Market, Café Imperial and the Crystal Palace Gardens, and use murals, mirrors, lasers, plasma balls and multimedia to recast Porto as a parallel city.

The FC Porto Museum occupies almost 8,000 square metres beneath the east stand of the Estádio do Dragão. Opened in 2013 for the club's 120th anniversary, it has 27 themed areas on the history of FC Porto in football and other sports, with the club's trophies, among them its international cups. Guided tours of the stadium are also offered.

Serralves is a cultural foundation in western Porto, set up in 1989. Its grounds hold a contemporary art museum designed by Álvaro Siza and opened in 1999, the pink Art Deco Casa de Serralves completed in 1940 for the Count of Vizela, and an 18-hectare park with gardens, woodland, sculptures and a treetop walk.

The Water Pavilion is an interactive science centre about water at the north entrance of Porto's City Park. Designed by architect Alexandre Burmester for Expo '98 in Lisbon, it was moved to Porto and reopened in 2002; its exhibits follow a river from source to sea and cover the city's water cycle and the efficient use of energy.