Archaeological Museum of São Miguel de Odrinhas

The Archaeological Museum of São Miguel de Odrinhas in Sintra municipality, Lisbon District, Portugal owes its existence to the collection by the Hermitage of São Miguel of epigraphic stones found amongst the Roman ruins in the neighbourhood. Around the year 30 B.C. Olisipo (Roman Lisbon) received from Augustus the status that allowed it to combine Roman law with its own ancient laws, thus permitting full integration into the Roman Empire. Most of its important families lived outside Lisbon in villas and many of the estates were located in the Sintra area. In 1955, Sintra Town Council first proposed the construction of a small museum to bring together in Odrinhas the collection of the Hermitage, which had by then been dispersed, as well as items discovered more recently.