In the Palácio dos Carrancas, a neoclassical building from the 18th century located in the Miragaia district in Porto, stands the Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis, founded in 1833 by King Pedro IV as Portugal's first national museum. In 1911, it was named after the renowned sculptor António Soares dos Reis, whose works constitute one of the central nuclei of the collections.

The museum houses over 18,000 pieces distributed in painting, sculpture, graphic arts, decorative arts (furniture, ceramics, glass, jewelry, textiles), and archaeological artifacts. The painting section boasts around 2,500 works, particularly from the naturalist school of Porto: Silva Porto, Marques de Oliveira, Henrique Pousão, Aurélia de Souza, and Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso.

Among the museum's gems is the famous marble sculpture O Desterrado (1872), an intense expression of Lusitanian romanticism and realism, along with other masterpieces by the same artist.

The rooms on the noble floor, some still furnished with original furniture, host collections of ceramics from the North of Portugal (faïence from Miragaia and Gaia), European and Oriental porcelain, precious jewelry, and glassware.