The Maritime Museum of Ílhavo was founded on August 8, 1937. At an early stage, it had an ethnographic and regional vocation, and it was mainly focused on the riverside populations, asserting itself as a place of memory and conservation of local customs and practices and in the relationship with the agro-maritime activities of the Aveiro lagoon.
In the ’80s and ’90s, at a time when the Portuguese cod industry began to change its nature, the Museum deepened its maritime vocation. By this time, it had become an actual Maritime Museum, devoted primarily to the cod fishing theme.
Today the Museum is installed in a modern building with beautiful architecture. It is an internationally recognized museum of excellence, primarily due to its vocation and dedication to the sea culture, its mission to preserve the memory of the work at sea and to promote the Portuguese culture and maritime identity. For the future, the Museum takes on the challenge of continuing to innovate to make its gallery and collections continuously attractive, investigating new themes that continue to give life to the institution and investing in critical concepts such as Blue Literacy.
