Education and research guide the International Museum Day programme

This Saturday, several cities around the world are marking International Museum Day, this year united around the theme of 'Museums for Education and Research'. In Porto, more than two dozen venues are organising free activities. Among the various proposals, the Museum and Libraries of Porto promote heritage with a programme rich in exhibitions, guided tours, gatherings, workshops, music and even a peddy paper between various museums.

Arqueossítio offers a night-time tour of the 'Magia da cidade oculta' (Magic of the hidden city), which takes participants to the gates of Vandoma, São Sebastião, Mentiras and Sant'Ana, while the Romanticism Extension invites you to stroll through the gardens of Quinta da Macieirinha and Casa Tait, among centuries-old trees.

At the Casa Marta Ortigão Sampaio Museum, the traditional guided tours will be 'disorientated', offering short theatre performances for the whole family. In Pasteleira, Reservatório offers an itinerary with activities to discover four paths in a labyrinth to unravel stories, and a late afternoon jazz session with the Carlos Bica Quartet.

Throughout the day, visitors to Casa do Infante will be able to explore the museum 'with detective's eyes' and solve puzzles with the aim of discovering the traces and marks of time on the National Monument where Henry the Navigator was born.

On International Museum Day, there will also be time for a guided tour of the Old Town Hall and the 'possible architectural reconstruction' of the building and its interior, or for a discussion on the role of museums in education at the Guerra Junqueiro Museum.

The Tramcar Museum is also joining in the celebrations, offering a 'Milagre Invisível' (Invisible Miracle), a guided tour of the inaugural tramcar journey in the city, the first in the Iberian Peninsula, a workshop for the family to create a 'Passe Universal' (Universal Pass), and a night-time visit and journey.

More than two dozen venues organise free activities

This is also an opportunity to visit the recently opened Conflict Museum, inside the Porto Court of Appeal, which invites you to 'Mandar às Malvas' (Send Them to Hell), on a tour between the Court, the Portuguese Centre of Photography and the Hospital Centre Museum. At the end of the day, you can listen to a piano recital.

At the Museum of Transport and Communication, in Alfândega do Porto, it will be possible to take part in two workshops related to democracy and the 25 April, with the evening reserved for the play 'Aventuras e Desventuras de Camilo e Zé do Telhado', by the theatre company A Colmeia.

At Serralves, it will be possible, among other activities, to take a look at the museum's reserves for future exhibitions, and the Soares dos Reis National Museum will have a workshop and a meeting on 'Communicating Research at the Museum'.

The enhancement of Porto's museum heritage includes proposals at Casa São Roque, the Portuguese Centre of Photography, the Confraria de Nossa Senhora da Silva, the Eng. António de Almeida Foundation, the Biodiversity Gallery in the Botanical Garden, the Pharmacy Museum, the Hospital Centre Museum, the Higher Institute of Engineering Museum, the Paper Money Museum, the Military Museum, the ESEP Museum, the Museum of the Faculty of Pharmacy, the Planetarium, and the Natural History and Science Museum of the University of Porto.

Several of these institutions will be united on this day in a 'Museuspaper', a peddy paper with riddles and prizes for those who show the best knowledge of the city's museums.

Full details of the International Museum Day programme in the city can be found on the Municipality of Porto's Culture page.