do Oriente MUSEUM Down by the docks, just next to the Alcântara station, is a windowless white warehouse built in the 1940s to store salt cod. In 2008, it was transformed into a museum to celebrate Lisbon’s 5 centuries of cultural and commercial exchanges with Asia. The dark spaces inside feature eclectic collections ranging from larger-than-life statues of Jesuit martyrs to traditional Korean costumes, Indian shadow puppets, suits of Samurai armor, or ritual masks from East Timor. Temporary exhibitions showcase contemporary Asian artists or focus on more treasures from the storerooms. The cultural program ranges from concerts of Japanese flute music to Bollywood movie evenings. Visitors can sign up for workshops for adults and children; themes include Chinese kite-making, yoga, or Japanese manga drawing. The top-floor restaurant is reputed to serve the best brunch in town.
Avenida Brasília, Doca de Alcântara. www.museudooriente.pt. 21/358-52-00. 6€; 3.50€ over 65s; 2.50€ students; 2€ youngsters 6–12; free under-6 and for all Fri 6pm–9:30pm. Open Tues–Thurs and Sat–Sun 10am–5:30pm; Fri 10am–9:30pm. Train: Alcântara. Tram: 15, 18. Bus: 714, 738, 742.
Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga MUSEUM Portugal’s finest collection of old masters is housed in a clifftop 17th-century palace and adjacent convent backed by grassy, sculpture-filled garden where visitors can enjoy 180-degree harbor views while enjoying coffee or lunch from the self-service restaurant/cafe.
Inside, the National Museum of Ancient Art is focused on Portuguese and European art from the 15th to 19th centuries. Masterpieces include the nightmarish Temptations of St. Anthony by Hieronymus Bosch ; Francisco de Zurbarán’s full-body portraits of the 12 Apostles ; a wickedly seductive Salomé by Lucas Cranach ; and a pair of golden 16th-century Japanese screen paintings depicting Portuguese sailors arriving in Nagasaki. For many Portuguese, however, the museum’s greatest treasure item is the Panels of St. Vincent , a massive 1470s work by Nuno Gonçalves depicting Lisbon society—from fishermen to royalty—at the time of the Discoveries.
Besides the world-class painting collection, there are rooms filled with goldware, ceramics, antique furniture and textiles from around Europe and the lands visited by Portuguese explorers. Don’t miss the Belém Monstrance , a solid gold creation crafted by playwright Gil Vicente in 1506 with gold brought home by Vasco da Gama from the coast of East Africa on his way back from the first sea voyage to India. Diverse objects from West Africa, India, Persia, China, and Japan also recall Portugal’s overseas ventures.
Rua das Janelas Verdes 95. www.museudearteantiga.pt. 21/391-28-00. 6€; 3€ over 65s; free under 12s. Tues–Sun 10am–6pm. Tram: 25. Bus: 713, 714, 727.
Museu Nacional dos Coches MUSEUM Every child who visits the National Coach Museum here must dream about hiding until midnight to find out if the gleaming gold carriages turn into pumpkins. This is one of Europe’s finest collections of horse-drawn coaches and one of the most visited museums in the country. It was founded in 1905 to showcase the carriages of the aristocracy and royal family. The oldest coach on exhibit carried King Phillip III of Spain on a visit to Lisbon in 1618. The golden carriage—shipped from Vienna by Emperor Joseph I for his sister Maria Anna’s 1708 wedding to Portugal’s King Joao V—is the most fairytale-like. Others among the rococo contraptions were used by popes, nobles, and crowned heads from Portugal and around Europe, but there’s no evidence any of them ever rushed a kitchen maid with missing glass slipper home from a ball.
Controversially, in 2015 the museum was moved into a vast ultra-modern building across the road from its original atmospheric home in the old royal stables (which can still be visited). Still, it remains one of Portugal’s most-visited museums.
Avenida da Índia 136. www.museudoscoches.gov.pt. 21/073-23-19. 8€, (10€ if you include the royal stables); 4€ (5€ with stables) for over 65s; free for under 12s. Tues–Sun 10am–5:30pm. Train: Belém. Tram: 15. Bus: 714, 727, 729, 751.
Padrão dos Descobrimentos MONUMENT The 50m-high (164-ft.) Discoveries Monument was first erected in the 1940s by Portugal’s Fascist-inspired dictatorship to celebrate the Age of Discovery. It remains a striking landmark jutting like the bow of a caravela sailing boat over the waters of the Tagus. From the bow to the stern, the pure white monolith is lined with outsized statues of Discoveries-era heroes including Vasco da Gama and Ferdinand Magellan. They are led by Henry the Navigator standing proud atop the prow. The original temporary structure was replaced by the current concrete-and-limestone monument in 1960 to mark the 500th year after Henry’s death. Among the sculptures on the west side is Gomes Eanes de Zurara’s poignant description of the 1444 sale of the first Africans carried to Portugal as slaves. In another sign of the Discoveries’ darker associations, the giant compass rose laid out before the monument was a 1960 gift to the Salazar dictatorship from the apartheid government of South Africa. There are temporary exhibitions inside and views over Belém and the river from the terrace.
Av. de Brasília. www.padraodosdescobrimentos.pt. 21/303-19-50. 6€; 5€ over 65s; 3€ youngsters 13–18; free under 12s. Mar–Sept daily 10am–8:30pm; Oct–Feb Tues–Sun 10am–5:30pm. Train: Belém. Tram: 15. Bus: 714, 727, 728, 729, 751.
Palacio da Ajuda PALACE In the aftermath of the 1755 earthquake, King José I was so shaken up he refused to live under masonry and ordered the building of a wooden cabin, known as the “royal shack” on a hillside above Belém. When she succeeded to the throne, his daughter Queen Maria I wanted something grander, ordering the construction of a colossal neo-classical palace in white stone. Work hardly got underway when Napoleon invaded, and the royals fled to Brazil. Then came Civil War (1828–1834). Then the money ran out. All that left the palace looking from one side like a grand rival to London’s Buckingham Palace, from the other like an abandoned construction site. Still the royal family lived there until booted out by a republican revolution in 1910. It makes an impressive visit with the sumptuous salons fully furnished with regal trappings, as if they were expecting the monarch to return at any moment. Particularly imposing is the banqueting room where the president still holds state dinners. In 2016, a 21€-million plan was announced to finish the construction by building a west wing to hold the crown jewels, currently stashed in vaults. It’s unlikely to be open before 2021, and there will be closures of some rooms during the construction work. Behind the palace, Lisbon’s oldest Botanical garden laid out in 1768 is a festival of exotic flora with a 2€ admission fee.
Largo da Ajuda. www.palacioajuda.gov.pt. 21/363-70-95. 5€;
