Alcoutim Municipal Museum – Village’s Castle Archaeology Centre

The Alcoutim Municipal Museum integrates several exhibition nuclei such as Ethnography, Archaeology, Local History and Ancient Art.

The Archaeology Museum Centre is located inside the Alcoutim Castle and presents the exhibition "The Archaeological Heritage of Alcoutim", a historical journey imbued with a millenary memory that seeks to transmit cultures and knowledge which, in a more or less distant past, crossed the territory which is now Alcoutim.

On display here is the Timeless Games - Game Boards and Stones Collection, which includes the largest collection of board games from the Islamic era, as well as the only examples of Mancala known in Portugal. Discover this Collection from the archaeological excavations carried out in the Old Castle of Alcoutim (Castelo Velho de Alcoutim), composed of thirty-nine complete and fragmented boards and eighteen small game stones. Engraved on schist slabs, these boards belong to six different typologies: Alquerque, Tabula, Moinho or Trilha (Nine men's morris), Galo (Tapatan), Mancala and Soldier’s Game.

Be sure also to visit the Old Castle, also known as Saint Barbara’s Hillfort, located at the highest point of the village, providing some of the most wonderful views in the area. Considered one of the most remarkable monuments of the Islamic period in Portugal, the old castle is one of the most important Islamic military structures in the Algarve due to the levels of Muslim occupation it still preserves, where various archaeological materials have been discovered.