Three Portuguese museums have been selected as candidates for best of the year, the European Museum Forum’s Maria Vlachou said Monday.

Making it into the first round of the European Museum of the Year competition are: the Capelinhos Centre of Volcanic Interpretation (Faial, the Azores), the Convent of São Paulo Hotel-Museum (Redondo) and the Côa Museum (Vila Nova de Foz Côa).

The European Museum of the Year award is the highest profile award for the sector and awarded annually to the museum deemed to have attracted the largest number of visitors, satisfied them and created a unique environment able to foster creativity, education and social responsibility.

Among the 46 rivals are the Croatian Kraneamus: Krapina Neanderthal Museum, the NUKU Museum of Puppetry, in Tallinn, Estonia, the Children’s Book Museum, in the Hague, the Netherlands, the Chekhov Memorial Museum-Reserve, Melikhovo, Russia with London’s Kensington Palace, one of ten British museums picking up nominations.

The winner will be announced on 19 May.

(Photograph: Vulcão dos Capelinhos)