

International Customs Law Academy

XVII
World Customs Law Meeting
Porto, Portugal 2025




VENUE

The Porto Customshouse Congress Centre (Centro de Congressos da Alfândega) is a convention centre and former-customshouse, It was built over 160 years ago and used to be a customs house, the building maintains its original architecture with singular shapes and spaces that surprises all visitors every single time.
The building is located in the heart of Porto´s historic city centre, World Heritage Site by Unesco.
The building was designed to be practical and modern in its days. It even has a railway line that connected it to the railway station of Campanhã in Porto. The side facing the river, which can be well appreciated in Vila Nova de Gaia, was prepared to receive all the merchants that arrived by ship.
After the opening of Leixões port, further north of Porto, the merchant ships no longer need to sail up the Douro, so the customs closed its doors and moved to Leixões.


The Customs Museum and Library
The museum and library is located inside the Porto Customshouse Congress Centre.
The Customs System was a determining factor in the construction of the modern State, constituting as it did the main source of national revenue for many years, and helping to demarcate the zones of circulation. Many hands helped to built the New Customs House in Porto and were then put to work in its daily activities. In their day to day working lives, the customs employees developed particular routine within a complex system of hierarchies and labour division. The symbols of the organizational structure from the past pertain mainly to the domination of the merchandise and merchants, from the verification of the authentic of the merchandise, the treatment of the goods in the warehouse, the payment taxes and the transportation dispatch orders.
The Customs Museum exhibits diverse documentation, equipment and instruments used in the Customs House Treasuries, Warehouses, Dispatches, Laboratories, as well as objects related to and used by the Customs employees
