Owing to the peaceful nature of rural Lusitania, Romanisation of the indigenous population was quick and Conímbriga became a prosperous town.

[1] On the occasion of the 11th International Congress on Archaeology and Pre-History (1930) in Portugal, the state acquired the first lands and official excavations on the site.

It was followed in 1964 by the collaboration between this museum and the archaeological mission from the University of Bordeaux: under the direction of J. Bairrão Oleiro, Robert Étienne and Jorge de Alarcão, the centre of the Roman city was unearthed.

[1] In 1970, the work with the mosaics was consolidated, at a time when the monograph museum was expanded (with a basement, installations for a guard and interior shelter).

[1] The early work continued into 1974, with the consolidation, restoration and expansion of the museum and 1975, with the prospecting into other zones, the paving of walkways, landscaping and solutions to drainage issues.

[1] These repairs continued into 1977, with expansion of the museum, restoration of the facades, the old portico and the colonnade was transformed into an internal gallery, the arrangement of the principal atrium and creating a gutters to alleviate pedestrian walkways.

[1] The following year began the construction of a ticket booth in cement and glass, while in 1979 an electrical transformer and litter incineration unit were installed.

[1] During the 1990s, there were projects to remodel the museum and upgrade the displays and various installations to support visitors, under the direction of Cruz Alarcão, Arquitectos Lda.

[1] They were re-contracted in 2004–2005 to improve the site, including the reconstruction of the Augustian forum and southern thermal spas, and construction of a small structure for spectacles (consisting of a roadway, stage and bunks molded to the terrain) alongside the aqueduct.

[1] The excavation site and visitors' centre are located on the outskirts of the rural community of Condeixa-a-Nova, based on a plateau-shaped triangular spur over two deep depressions (one occupied by the Ribeira dos Mouros).

There were specifically three phases of spatial organization: from the 1st century BC, under the reign of Augustus, a late Republican forum (which included a crypto-portico, basilica, curia and commercial shops), thermal baths, an aqueduct and pre-Roman residential buildings; a 1st-century AD group, established under Flavius, that included a reconstructed Imperial forum, Vitruvian baths and a revised urban plan; and a 3rd-century settlement that fell within revised walls.

[1][3] The civil and residential buildings included numerous examples of remodeled and reused structures dating from the first century BC.

The house attributed to Cantaber is the largest known private residence in the excavated area of Conimbriga and was more than 3,260 square metres, with 40 rooms and even a hypocaust, an ingenious system in which air heated in a furnace circulated under the floor and through the perforated bricks placed inside the walls, having been built in the first century of our era.

[6][7] Most of the private and public buildings in Conímbriga featured abundant decorative materials, including mosaics, sculptures and painted murals.

[1] The amphitheatre, dating from the end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, takes advantage of a natural depression that surrounded the city to the north.