Casa do Infante

Casa do Infante’s Roman mosaics and exhibitions

Casa do Infante is one of the sites of the Museu do Porto, the city museum. The visit takes in three things: the digs under the building, the permanent exhibitions and a changing show on the city’s past.

The excavations under the house

In the 1990s, while the house was being restored, archaeologists found Roman, medieval and later remains under it, and the route now runs on walkways above them.

The mosaic floors are what to look for. The museum reads them as the floors of a wealthy citizen’s house, or small palace, in Roman times.

The Henry the Navigator exhibitions

Visitors say Henry takes up most of the permanent exhibitions, and one also found a model of the medieval city. The building holds the city’s Historical Archive too.

The third part, the Gabinete do Tempo (Cabinet of Time), has held changing exhibitions on Porto’s history since 2020.

Casa do Infante tickets, free days and opening hours

The ticket is €4, and the house is outside the Porto passes. The Gabinete do Tempo costs nothing on any day the house opens.

Free entry to the rest is less clear-cut. Visit Porto, the city’s tourist office, lists the house as free on Sundays and for under-18s, students, teachers and journalists, and a visitor in April 2025 found it free on a Sunday.

The museum’s own site gives that list for spaces such as the Gabinete do Tempo, not for the house itself, so check at the desk before you pay.

For a longer stay, there’s also a Museu da Cidade ticket, valid for seven days in a row; the desk can tell you which sites it covers.

Seven centuries of Casa do Infante

The house was built in 1325, and it was once one of the biggest in Porto, thanks to two 14th-century towers that have since gone.

For centuries it was the city’s customs house, and Porto’s mint worked here too. When the royal family came on official visits, this is where they stayed.

The name comes from Prince Henry: infante is the Portuguese title for a king’s son who isn’t the heir. The Navy Museum in Lisbon dates his birth in Porto to 4 March 1394. His parents, João I and Philippa of Lancaster, had married up the hill at the Cathedral seven years before.

Whether he was born in this house is another matter. Visit Porto settles for “presumably”.

Along the Ribeira from Casa do Infante

Casa do Infante is at Rua da Alfândega 10, and the river is at the bottom of the street. The nearest metro is São Bento, 11 minutes’ walk away, and buses 500, 900, 901 and 906 stop nearby.