The Museum of History and Ethnology of Terra da Maia is located in a building that served as the Town Hall until 1902, and whose origins probably date back to the 18th century. It later functioned as a primary school, headquarters of the Castêlo da Maia Sports Club, headquarters of the Parish Council of Santa Maria de Avioso, Post Office, and Civil Registry until its closure in 1998, to carry out the works to adapt it to the Municipal Museum. However, the museum project for Terra da Maia, an administrative geographic unit between the Ave and Duero rivers, dates back to the 1960s, when a historical and archaeological exhibition was installed in the cloister of the Conventual Church of Moreira da Maia, but it was in 2001 that the Museum of History and Ethnology of Terra da Maia was inaugurated, with a collection organized within the thematic areas of History and Ethnology.

Its mission is to provide access to information and the construction of knowledge, which attract and stimulate the population of Maia and cultural diversity, through the development of mediation programs, giving the person and the community an active and participatory role in society, with special attention to the construction, preservation and dissemination of the identity and heritage of Terra da Maia.