Fodor's Expert Review Museu da Sociedade Martins Sarmento

At the top of the Largo do Toural is this excellent archaeological museum contained within the cloister of the the Igreja de São Domingos. The museum has rich finds from the Celtic settlement of Citânia de Briteiros northwest of Guimarães, which makes it a logical stop before or after visiting the site. There are also Lusitanian and Roman stone sarcophagi, a strange miniature bronze chariot, various weapons, and elaborate ornaments. Two finds stand out: the decorative, carved stone slabs known as the pedras formosas (beautiful stones)—one of which was found at a funerary monument at Briteiros—and the huge, prehistoric granite Colossus of Pedralva, a figure of brutal power thought to have been used in ancient fertility rites.