Islamic Art Museum - Mertola
The Museum of Islamic Art is located in the south side of the old town. It is a modern and tastefully organised museum to show the Islamic past in Mertola. The museum is situated inside former granary of Braganca House. There are walls inside the museum and they were once part of the city’s defensive system.
The Islamic culture and art flourished in al-Andalus during the Muslim rule from 8th -13th centuries. The exhibitions are displayed on two floors, covering the Muslim presence in the Iberian Peninsula.
There is a very good variety of ceramic plates which are made by using the cuerda seca technique. Cuerda seca is a technique which involves the applying of colour glazes to the ceramic surface. This technique was mastered by the Muslims in Spain & Portugal (formerly known as al-Andalus).
A model inside the museum hows how a typical house would have looked like during the Muslim period. There is another model which belong to a former Almohad mosque but now it is called the Matriz Church. Roof of the this former mosque was changed in the 16th century but some of the original structure has survived to this day.
There are few funeral tombstones on display, one of them has Arabic inscription which translates as ‘ In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, Peace on Him and Muhammad’.
There is a one plate on display inside the museum which depicts birds and animals on it and this is also shown on the sign of Mertola town. On the upper floor, most of these objects are from the 9th to the 13th centuries. These items are considered to be one of the best preserved in Portugal.
The one thing which I missed about these displays was that there were no name tags beside the items. There were few on the lower floor but all of them were in the Portuguese language. Without any information, it was hard to figure out, what purpose these objects were used for. But still, a visit to this museum offers an insight into the Muslim culture of Mertola.
