Meet the expert: Mafalda Magalhães, FC Porto Museum Director

ESSMA interviewed Mafalda Magalhães, FC Porto’s Museum Director. Her daily tasks involve coordinating all the departments and, together with a work team, performing the operational management of FC Porto’s Museum.

“Since the opening in 2013, we have welcomed over 735,000 visitors.”

Did you look at other club examples when building the museum?

During the assessment phase our team visited other club museums in Europe and South America as well as museums that weren’t sports related. It was very important to collect inspiration from what’s done well at other museums. We created a museum that’s modern, interactive and intuitive, with an important museological narrative and a strong link to the city’s history. Now, other clubs gather inspiration from us, in the same way we were inspired by others in the past. 

When was the museum built?

FC Porto Museum was built in 2013. From the project’s beginning to its inauguration on 28 September 2013, construction took approximately six months. We opened to the public on 26 October 2013 due to fine tuning and operational aspects. This was an extremely ambitious project that resulted from the determined work of a small team who counted on the support of suppliers and partners to open this museum in the short period of six months. 

“From a visitors’ standpoint, FC Porto Museum operates with two products we concentrate into one called “Tour FC Porto”. The Tour FC Porto is a visit to both our museum and Estadio do Dragao, because our stadium is part of our history and it’s consequently also part of the museum. It’s very unlikely that visitors who come to see the museum don’t want to visit the stadium and vice-versa. There’s an important focus on entertainment as well, visitors to the museum will also visit the pitch and the area the players go through to access the pitch.”

How many people visit the museum on a yearly base?

We’re currently on our fifth year of operation and this year we’ll reach a total of 175,000 visitors. In total, since the opening, we have welcomed over 735,000 visitors. This makes us the most visited museum in the city of Porto - especially when it comes to paid attractions.