Film and TV locations in Portugal
74 places to shoot in Portugal: 11 industrial and derelict locations, 11 transport and infrastructure locations, 8 theatres, arenas and venues and 44 more. 24 have a photo and 18 carry practical details the location publishes itself. Search and put three side by side in the locations search.
What Portugal pays back
Portugal runs the SCRI.PT cash rebate (RIPAC), worth 30% / 25% (large track); 30% to 40% (medium track) as a cash rebate. Work out the net value on your own spend in the incentive comparison, and find a studio, service company or post house in the 28 companies we list in Portugal.
Regions
- Lisbon 22
- Algarve 10
- Porto 6
- Porto and North 6
And single locations in 23 more regions, all of them in the list below.
Industrial and derelict locations in Portugal 11
Factories, warehouses, power stations, mines, depots and abandoned buildings: raw space, hard surfaces and the kind of decay that is impossible to build. All 11 on their own page.
Central Tejo, MAAT
Industrial & derelict
Former early 20th century thermoelectric power station on the Lisbon riverfront in Belem, now part of the MAAT museum complex, with its former turbine halls hired out for corporate events.
Fábrica Braço de Prata
Industrial & derelict
A former military ammunition factory in Marvila, Lisbon, converted into a cultural complex with a theatre, bar and exhibition halls across its old industrial buildings.
Adega Baía da Arruda
Industrial & derelict
Small working winery on Pico Island in the Azores, set among the UNESCO-listed currais, stone-walled plots that shelter vines grown directly on volcanic rock.
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Barbadinhos Steam Pumping Station
Industrial & derelict
Steam-powered water pumping station in Xabregas that operated from 1880 to 1928, preserving four steam engines inside its industrial hall as part of Lisbon's water museum.
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Corroios Tide Mill
Industrial & derelict
Restored 17th century tide mill on the Coina estuary in Seixal, part of the Seixal municipal ecomuseum, using the rise and fall of the tide to power its milling machinery.
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Loulé Rock Salt Mine
Industrial & derelict
Underground rock salt mine in the Algarve hinterland near Loulé, with excavated caverns and tunnels used for cave and underground filming; coordinates mark the town centre, not the mine entrance.
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Lousal Mining Museum
Industrial & derelict
Former pyrite-mining village in Grandola built around a twentieth-century mining company's power plant, now a museum with mining machinery, tools and worker housing.
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Mourisca Tide Mill
Industrial & derelict
Restored tide mill on the Sado estuary near Setúbal, using the rise and fall of the tide to turn its grinding wheels, now managed as a heritage and educational site.
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Rabelo Boat Yard
Industrial & derelict
Working shipyard on the Douro riverfront in Porto that still builds and repairs traditional rabelo boats once used to carry Port wine barrels downriver.
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Sao Domingos Mine
Industrial & derelict
Abandoned open-pit copper and pyrite mining complex near Mertola, worked from the 1850s to 1966, left with ochre-coloured pit lakes, spoil heaps and derelict processing buildings.
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Wine Cellars Jose Maria da Fonseca
Industrial & derelict
Historic wine cellars of one of Portugal's oldest table wine producers, founded in 1834 in Azeitao, with ageing cellars, a museum house and production buildings open to visitors.
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Transport and infrastructure in Portugal 11
Stations, airports, ports, bridges, tunnels, metro lines and rolling stock, including disused stretches that can be closed off for a shoot. All 11 on their own page.
Cabo da Roca Lighthouse
Transport & infrastructure
Working lighthouse on Cabo da Roca near Colares, mainland Europe's westernmost point, standing on wind-blown cliffs above the Atlantic.
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Porto de Leixões
Transport & infrastructure
The deep water port of Leixões between Matosinhos and Leça da Palmeira, with container terminals, a cruise terminal and breakwaters managed by port authority APDL.
Santa Marta Lighthouse
Transport & infrastructure
Working lighthouse on the Cascais waterfront built inside the grounds of the former Santa Marta Fort, a white tiled quadrangular tower with blue stripes and a red lantern overlooking the Tagus estuary, with a lighthouse museum on site.
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Cabo de Sao Vicente Lighthouse
Transport & infrastructure
Working lighthouse at the tip of Cabo de Sao Vicente near Sagres, on the cliffs of Portugal's south-western corner, listed in the national film commission's lighthouse network.
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Cabo Espichel Lighthouse
Transport & infrastructure
Working lighthouse on the cliffs of Cabo Espichel near Sesimbra, beside a walled pilgrimage sanctuary and rows of former pilgrims' lodgings on an open headland.
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Estacao do Rossio
Transport & infrastructure
Neo-Manueline railway station on Lisbon's Rossio square, with two horseshoe-arched doorways on its facade and platforms reached through a tunnel under the Bairro Alto hill.
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Farol dos Capelinhos
Transport & infrastructure
Coastal lighthouse on Faial partly buried by ash from the 1957-58 Capelinhos submarine volcanic eruption, standing on the new lava and ash landscape it created.
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Museu Nacional Ferroviario
Transport & infrastructure
National railway museum on the site of Entroncamento's railway works, with steam locomotives, carriages and workshop sheds spanning more than a century of Portuguese rail history.
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Pero Negro Railway Station
Transport & infrastructure
Small rural railway station on the Oeste line near Sobral de Monte Agraço, with a period station building, platform and level crossing still used by regional trains.
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Santa Cruz Municipal Aerodrome
Transport & infrastructure
Small municipal airfield close to the Santa Cruz beaches near Torres Vedras, home to the local aeroclub and one of the earliest civil aviation sites near Lisbon.
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Setubal Fishing Dock
Transport & infrastructure
Working fishing dock on the Sado estuary at Setubal, with moored trawlers, quayside fish auction sheds and views across the estuary to the Troia peninsula.
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Theatres, arenas and venues in Portugal 8
Auditoriums, concert halls, opera houses, cinemas, arenas and event spaces, with the backstage, foyers and dressing rooms that come with them. All 8 on their own page.
Algarve International Circuit
Theatre, arena & venue
FIA-grade motor racing circuit near Portimao with elevation changes of up to forty metres, a start-finish straight, paddock buildings and grandstands.
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Cinema São Jorge
Theatre, arena & venue
Art Deco cinema opened in 1950 on Lisbon's Avenida da Liberdade, run by the city's culture agency EGEAC and host to the city's main film festivals, with its screening rooms available for space rental.
Culturgest
Theatre, arena & venue
Arts centre run by a bank foundation inside its Lisbon headquarters, with galleries and auditoriums used for theatre, music, cinema and conferences, and its own space-rental service.
Estádio do Dragão
Theatre, arena & venue
FC Porto's stadium in Campanhã, opened in 2003 with about 50,000 seats, offering pitch, stands, museum and hospitality areas.
Braga Municipal Stadium
Theatre, arena & venue
Football stadium built into a disused granite quarry on Monte Castro, with seating on two sides only and the bare quarry rock face left exposed behind each goal.
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Casa da Musica
Theatre, arena & venue
Angular concrete concert hall by Rem Koolhaas on Porto's Rotunda da Boavista, with a shoebox-shaped main auditorium and several smaller performance rooms.
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Centro de Artes do Espetáculo de Portalegre
Theatre, arena & venue
Municipal performing arts centre in Portalegre's historic centre, built on the site of a former religious retreat house, with a large auditorium, a smaller auditorium and a multipurpose cafe-concert hall.
Piscina das Marés
Theatre, arena & venue
Álvaro Siza's tidal swimming pools built into the rocks at Leça da Palmeira, Matosinhos, using seawater pools framed in board marked concrete.
Offices, schools and public buildings in Portugal 8
Offices, town halls, courtrooms, libraries, universities and schools: the interiors most contemporary drama actually needs. All 8 on their own page.
Palácio da Bolsa
Office, school & public building
Former 19th century stock exchange building in Porto, now the headquarters of the Porto Commercial Association, with a conference centre, restaurant and ornate historic rooms open for guided tours and events.
Casa Junqueiro Regional Museum
Office, school & public building
Regional museum opened in 1998 in the historic centre of Freixo de Espada a Cinta, on the ground floor of the mansion that belonged to the father of poet Guerra Junqueiro, showing the town's stately-home character.
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Museum Condes de Castro Guimaraes
Office, school & public building
Early 20th century neo-Manueline mansion on the Cascais waterfront, built as a private residence and now a municipal museum with towers, a library and gardens overlooking the bay.
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Portalegre Tapestry Museum (Guy Fino)
Office, school & public building
Tapestry museum inside a former noble town house in Portalegre, remodelled to display the local tapestry workshop's collection and archive alongside the original architecture.
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Portimao Museum
Office, school & public building
Municipal museum in Portimao housed in a former fish canning factory on the riverfront, keeping the industrial shell and machinery pits of the cannery alongside its exhibition galleries.
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Silk and Territory Museum
Office, school & public building
Museum in Freixo de Espada a Cinta holding the town's ethnographic, archaeological and geological collections alongside a display on hand silk weaving, still practised locally with centuries-old wooden looms.
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Teixeira Lopes House Museum
Office, school & public building
House and sculpture workshop built in 1895 in Vila Nova de Gaia for sculptor Jose Teixeira Lopes, now a city council run house museum holding his art collection.
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University of Coimbra (Paco das Escolas)
Office, school & public building
UNESCO-listed royal-palace-turned-university courtyard in Coimbra, with the Joanina Baroque library, a bell tower and ceremonial halls still in academic use.
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Churches and monasteries in Portugal 6
Cathedrals, churches, chapels, monasteries and cloisters, plus the crypts and refectories behind them. Churches and monasteries across Europe.
Convento de Cristo
Church & monastery
Templar castle and convent complex crowned by the round Charola oratory, with Manueline cloisters and hilltop ramparts above Tomar.
Seen in: The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018)
Monastery of Serra do Pilar
Church & monastery
Augustinian monastery complex above Vila Nova de Gaia begun in 1538, notable for its circular church and cloister, occupied by Wellington's troops in 1809 during the Peninsular War for its command of the Douro.
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Convent of Jesus, Setubal
Church & monastery
Late 15th century Manueline convent church in Setubal, one of the earliest examples of the style, with twisted stone columns and a vaulted interior, its former convent buildings now housing a municipal museum.
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Monastery of Coz
Church & monastery
Cistercian nunnery near Alcobaca founded in the 13th century, one of the wealthiest female monasteries of the order in Portugal by the 16th century, protected as a National Monument since 2021.
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Monastery of Grijo
Church & monastery
Former Augustinian canonry near Vila Nova de Gaia, mother house of the community that later moved to build the Monastery of Serra do Pilar, left partly in ruins after that move.
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Mosteiro de São Martinho de Tibães
Church & monastery
A Benedictine monastery complex near Braga with a baroque church, cloisters and gardens spanning eight centuries of building history, catalogued as a Portugal Film Commission location.
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Film studios and backlots in Portugal 5
Sound stages, backlots, water tanks and virtual production volumes you can hire, with the crew base and power that go with them. Film studios and backlots across Europe.
Estudios Valentim de Carvalho
Studio & backlot
Television studio complex in Paco de Arcos with six sound stages used for national broadcasts, music recording and the Portuguese Eurovision selection show.
Seen in: Festival RTP da Cancao
Six studios. Studio 1: 176 m2 (16 x 11 m, 6.5 m ceiling) with 2 dressing rooms with shower, a make-up room and a meeting room. Studio 2: 450 m2 with...
Algarve Studios
Studio & backlot
Multimedia content studio in central Faro offering studio space, equipment rental and production crew for video and photo shoots in the Algarve.
Espaco 1 of 25 m2 usable with a 55 inch screen and HDMI, meeting table and lounge area; Espaco 2 of 115 m2 usable on level -1 with a 3.37 m ceiling,...
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Estudio da Fabrica
Studio & backlot
Multifunctional video and photo studio in the Lisbon area with two sound stages for commercials, music videos, interviews and online video production.
Two studios of 200 m2 each, both 10.00 m wide x 14.00 m deep (20.00 m in total) x 7.60 m high, with 5.00 m to the lighting grid (Prolyte X30D truss)....
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MovieBox Studios Algarve
Studio & backlot
Former brewery site in Loule converted into a production complex with warehouses, stages and workshops, plus hardstanding for builds and unit base, used for film and TV productions in the Algarve.
Seen in: The Infernal Machine
Units A1-A3, 2000 sqm each at 18m height; stage B1, 3716 sqm at 8.4m with equal-size ancillary unit B2; unit C, 1250 sqm at 10.4m; unit D, 1465 sqm at...
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VLC Studios
Studio & backlot
Purpose-built production studio complex in Vale de Cambra, near Porto, listed in the national film commission's building catalogue under modern architecture.
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Historic towns and streets in Portugal 4
Old towns, squares and streets that can double for a period without dressing out a modern skyline. Historic towns and streets across Europe.
Alfama
Historic town & street
Lisbon's oldest quarter, a hillside maze of steep cobbled lanes, tiled facades and tram lines above the Tagus.
Seen in: Night Train to Lisbon (2013)
Cacela Velha
Historic town & street
Small fortified hilltop village on the eastern Algarve coast overlooking the Ria Formosa lagoon, with whitewashed houses, a small fort and a parish church around a single square.
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Evora Historic Centre
Historic town & street
UNESCO-listed Alentejo city within Roman and medieval walls, with a Roman temple, whitewashed streets, a granite cathedral and the bone-lined Capela dos Ossos.
Marvao
Historic town & street
Walled hilltop village on the Spanish border in the Serra de Sao Mamede, with a castle, whitewashed houses and long views over the surrounding plain.
Bars, restaurants and shops in Portugal 4
Cafes, bars, restaurants, markets, shops and shopping streets, the everyday interiors a schedule eats through quickly. Bars, restaurants and shops across Europe.
Time Out Market Lisboa
Bar, restaurant & shop
The restored 1892 Mercado da Ribeira market hall by Cais do Sodré in Lisbon, now a large food hall with dozens of kitchens and counters under Time Out's management.
Includes a dedicated events room (Estudio Time Out) of 400 square metres on the first floor of the market; full exclusive venue hire covers over 3,000...
Armazéns do Chiado
Bar, restaurant & shop
A rebuilt 19th century department store in Lisbon's Chiado district, now a shopping centre behind its restored historic facade after the 1988 Chiado fire.
Mercado do Bolhao
Bar, restaurant & shop
Porto's historic municipal market, reopened in 2022 after renovation, with two levels of fish, meat, flower and grocery stalls under a restored iron and glass roof.
Mercado Municipal de Loulé
Bar, restaurant & shop
Historic municipal market hall in the centre of Loulé, described by the town council as the building that most defines the town, with stalls for local produce, fish and crafts.
Houses and apartments in Portugal 3
Private houses, villas, apartments and period interiors available for filming, from workers' housing to architect-designed homes. Houses and apartments across Europe.
Casa dos Patudos
House & apartment
Early twentieth-century manor house in Alpiarca designed by architect Raul Lino for collector Jose Relvas, with period interiors and furnishings now open as a museum.
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Casa de Mateus
House & apartment
Baroque manor house near Vila Real with formal box-hedge gardens and a cedar tunnel, pictured on the label of Mateus Rose wine and used as a venue for concerts and cultural events.
Quinta do Pisao
House & apartment
Former farm estate on the edge of the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park, with old agricultural buildings, pine woods, pasture and a small lake open to visitors.
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Castles and estates in Portugal 3
Castles, fortresses, manor houses and country estates, usually with grounds, outbuildings and period interiors in one place. Castles and estates across Europe.
Castelo de Beja
Castle & estate
A medieval castle with a tall keep in the town of Beja, southern Alentejo, catalogued among Portugal Film Commission's castle locations.
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Forte das Berlengas
Castle & estate
17th century fort on the Berlengas archipelago off Peniche, built to defend the islands and now shared with a nature reserve, reached only by boat.
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Paço de Calheiros
Castle & estate
Manor house and wine estate above the Lima valley near Ponte de Lima, run by the same family for seven centuries, with historic gardens, vineyards, a pool and dining rooms, hosting weddings, corporate events and filming.
Villages and countryside in Portugal 3
Villages, farmland, meadows and rural roads: open country with somewhere to put a unit base. Villages and countryside across Europe.
Madeira Botanical Garden
Village & countryside
Terraced hillside garden above Funchal with exotic and native plant collections on volcanic slopes, reached by road or by a cable car from Monte.
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Quinta da Fidalga
Village & countryside
Municipal park and former country estate in Seixal, on the south bank of the Tagus, with wooded grounds listed by the national film commission for garden and forest settings.
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Quinta de Sant'Ana do Gradil
Village & countryside
Working farm and vineyard estate near the village of Gradil, 35km north of Lisbon, with 12 hectares of vines, olive and cypress groves, orchards, meadows and several holiday cottages.
Five holiday houses, gardens, swimming pool
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Modern architecture in Portugal 2
Contemporary buildings with a strong shape: museums, concert halls, campuses, glass towers and brutalist concrete. Modern architecture across Europe.
Adega Mayor
Modern architecture
A contemporary winery building in Campo Maior, Alentejo, offering vineyard tours and tastings alongside its architecture, listed in Portugal Film Commission's location database.
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Herdade do Freixo
Modern architecture
A rolling Alentejo wine estate near Redondo whose modern winery building won ArchDaily's Building of the Year in 2018, set among vineyards with wide viewpoints.
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Coast and beaches in Portugal 2
Beaches, cliffs, harbours and coastline, including stretches that can be closed off in the off season. Coast and beaches across Europe.
Praia do Guincho
Coast & beach
Wide Atlantic surf beach backed by dunes and the Sintra hills, known for strong wind and heavy waves.
Seen in: On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
Ria Formosa
Coast & beach
Lagoon system of barrier islands, salt marshes and channels along the eastern Algarve coast near Tavira and Faro, home to fishing communities, salt pans and wading birds.
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Hospitals, prisons and institutions in Portugal 1
Working and disused hospitals, clinics, prisons, barracks and asylums: corridors, wards and cells that are close to impossible to fake convincingly. Hospitals, prisons and institutions across Europe.
Centro Português de Fotografia
Hospital, prison & institution
Porto's former prison and law court building on Largo Amor de Perdição, now the national photography museum and archive, with its original cell wings preserved.
Palaces and landmarks in Portugal 1
Palaces, state rooms and recognisable landmarks, the places an establishing shot is built around. Palaces and landmarks across Europe.
Estoi Palace
Palace & landmark
Rococo and neoclassical revival palace from the 19th century near Faro, mixing Baroque and Romantic decoration, with formal gardens and a wing now run as a hotel.
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Mountains and wilderness in Portugal 1
Mountains, moors, volcanic ground, glaciers and empty terrain, where access and weather decide the schedule. Mountains and wilderness across Europe.
Monchique Range
Mountains & wilderness
Forested mountain range in the western Algarve rising to Fóia, with natural pools, waterfalls and hillside villages, cooler and greener than the coast below.
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Hotels and interiors in Portugal 1
Hotels, spas and their lobbies, ballrooms, bars and corridors, including closed or seasonal properties that can take over a whole unit. Hotels and interiors across Europe.
Pestana Palace Lisbon
Hotel & interiors
19th century palace in Alcantara converted into a luxury hotel, keeping its period reception rooms and gardens alongside newer hotel wings, listed in the national film commission's palace catalogue.
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