Trapped, Museu do Oriente, Lisbon

Like most cities, Lisbon is steeped in history and even has an interactive museum dedicated to its story. While the Lisbon Story Centre certainly helps you understand the background to the enticing blend of old and new that shapes Portugal’s capital, it’s not one of the best Lisbon museums. There are many others that hold more appeal for me.

1. Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon

It’s hard to choose an absolute favourite from all of the many museums in Lisbon but if you forced me to, I’d probably go with the Gulbenkian Museum.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve visited and now have some firm favourites in the permanent collection. Highlights include the exquisite tiles, rugs and beautifully decorated books in the Eastern Islamic Art room, closely followed by the Japanese inlaid boxes and the gorgeous Art Nouveau Lalique jewellery.

You can buy your ticket in advance here.

Temporary exhibitions change on a regular basis and range from photography to indoor and outdoor sculptures and a focus on still life oil paintings. I’ve written more about its charms in this post: Why the Gulbenkian is One of Lisbon’s Highlights.

The museum website has more details about opening times, prices and current exhibitions. You can buy a combined ticket (or visit on Sunday mornings when it’s all free) and see the contemporary art exhibitions within the complex.

Give yourself a break from art and artefacts by looking for ducks and frogs in the streams and ponds in the gardens.

Turkish star ceramic, Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon
Turkish star ceramic

The rest of the best Lisbon museums are listed in no particular order. It’s too hard to rank them as they offer such different experiences.

4-Day Portugal Travel Itinerary for Lisbon and Sintra product mock up
4-Day Travel Itinerary for Lisbon and Sintra

2. Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga

Strangely, the National Museum of Ancient Art is one that I’d avoided for quite some time, thinking I had no interest in old oil paintings of kings and saints. I visited while doing research for a travel guide I was writing and quickly realised what a fool I’d been. Yes, there are oil paintings, some of them by incredibly talented great masters. But there’s so much more. Too much to fully appreciate in one visit.

There are collections of remarkable furniture including inlaid walnut desks, patterned marble tables and a wonderful collection of Indo-Portuguese chests of drawers decorated with bizarre animals. It seems that in the 18th and 19th centuries, no stately home was complete without its very own nativity scene (presépio). Gaudy and certainly not to current tastes, they are nevertheless fascinating pieces.

Glassware, silverware, gold and ceramics are also represented. In fact you’d be hard pushed to name a material that isn’t. Luckily, there’s an onsite restaurant with a terrace that overlooks the river where you can take a break.

The museum also has a programme of regularly changing temporary exhibitions with guest works of art on loan from international collections.

Tip: Try to see a peculiar picture of Hell by an unknown Portuguese artist from the 15th century where the demonic world is associated with the universe outside Europe. Quite something!

Website: Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga

Walnut music table at MNAA, Lisbon
Walnut music table at MNAA, Lisbon

3. Museu de Arte Contemporânea

On the other end of the art spectrum, as well as the city, is the modern art collection in the Museu de Arte Contemporânea (formerly known as the Berardo Museum) in Belém. One of the most exciting of the Lisbon art museums, it is housed in an impressive example of contemporary architecture, with exhibitions ranging from pop art to off-the-wall weird. Several famous names feature on the catalogue, such as Andy Warhol, Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso.

The permanent collection is divided into distinct periods, i.e. 1900-1960 and 1960-2010 while the temporary exhibitions may be retrospective or futuristic in style. Or anything in between.

Best of all, the permanent collection is free to enter, although you may need to buy a ticket for some of the temporary ones. Being based in Belém, which is dominated by medieval architecture and is one of Lisbon’s top spots for photography, the Museu de Arte Contemporânea offers a welcome step back into the modern world.

Website: Museu de Arte Contemporânea

Discover other things do in Belém

Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Belem
Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Belem

4. Museu do Oriente, Lisbon

As the name implies, this relatively new museum, opened in 2008, is dedicated to the Orient and hosts a fascinating collection of Oriental art and cultural artifacts. Whether you’ve spent any time in Asia or not, it’s a fascinating place. When I visited, the temporary exhibition was all about Japanese contemporary culture with giant statues of cartoon characters and a mock up of a typical girl’s bedroom with floor to ceiling Hello Kitty paraphernalia.

More permanent exhibits include collections of masks, puppets, traditional toys, religious artifacts such as Hindu gods, silk screens and festival costumes. Portugal’s strong connections with China, Macau  and India are also in evidence with the Portuguese Presence in Asia exhibition – if you go on Sunday afternoon, there’s a special guided tour of this section at 4 pm.

Unlike most museums, it’s not free on Sunday mornings. The time to enjoy all of this for nothing is Friday evening from 6 pm to 10 pm.

Website: Museu do Oriente

Warrior outfit, Museu do Oriente, Lisbon
Warrior outfit, Museu do Oriente, Lisbon

5. Lisbon Puppet Museum

I went to the Museu da Marioneta to humour Mike and his fascination for puppets and enjoyed it as much as he did. As well as a  beautiful collection of shadow puppets from South East Asia, there are some wondrous African and Asian masks. I’d recently seen a water puppet show in Vietnam and was thrilled to see them represented here.

It’s not all about exotic countries and far flung cultures. The museum provides a fascinating history of puppetry in Portugal from glove and strings to animated films. Perhaps the most interesting part, for me, were the grotesque costumes used by the São Lourenço Theatre Company back in the 1970s.

Punch and Judy and their counterparts from other European countries also make an appearance and you can even step into the booth and put on your own show.

Website: Museu da Marioneta

This is one of my 33 ideas for what to do in Lisbon

Creepy São Lourenço puppet, Museu da Marioneta, Lisbon
Creepy São Lourenço puppet, Museu da Marioneta, Lisbon

6. Museu Nacional do Azulejo

I couldn’t possibly leave out the ceramics museum. As you probably know by now, Portugal is famous for its azulejos (hand-painted ceramic tiles). Perhaps the most iconic of these are the blue and white panels that depict scenes of gaiety, proud nobles, country folk or saints and legends.

There’s more to the history of Portuguese ceramics, of course, and the museum covers the different techniques, styles and influences from their first usage back in the 16th century to the present day.

The earliest ceramic tiles were based on the Islamic style with raised edges to mark the separation between colours. Later developments kept the geometric element but used different painting and glazing techniques. You can see these in the church and chapel that forms part of the museum. Look out for the beautiful painted panel of pre-earthquake Lisbon, too.

You can buy your tickets for the museum here.

This museum is out of town so you might want to take advantage of the café/restaurant facilities at lunchtime. You’ll find information about how to get there on their Facebook page: Museu Nacional do Azulejo.

Find out what happened when I went on this Portuguese Tile Painting workshop.

Contemporary and ancient ceramics, Museu do Azueljo, Lisbon
Contemporary and ancient ceramics, Museu do Azueljo, Lisbon

7. Museu de Lisboa – Palácio Pimenta

The actual Museu de Lisboa (Lisbon Museum) consists of 5 venues but my favourite is at the museum’s headquarters, Palácio Pimenta. This 18th century summer palace is a wonderful building, with plenty of azulejo panels and peacock-filled gardens.

The museum’s exhibition, revealing the development of the city from prehistoric times to the late 20th century is riveting.

Many of the ceramic and stone artefacts are brought to life with excellent video vignettes showing the pieces in context.

Miniature model of Lisbon before the 1755 Earthquake. Museu de Lisboa - Palácio Pimenta
Miniature model of Lisbon before the 1755 Earthquake. Museu de Lisboa – Palácio Pimenta

One of the many highlights for me is the miniature model of Lisbon prior to the 1755 earthquake, stretching over 10 metres in length. An interactive console enables you to learn more about different neighbourhoods and lifestyles, including interesting information about the lives of slaves in 18th century Lisbon.

Many other rooms belonging to the palace are part of the visit, including a huge kitchen with gorgeous azulejos.

Utensils and azulejos in the kitchen at Palácio Pimenta, Museu de Lisboa
Kitchen at Palácio Pimenta, Museu de Lisboa

Lisbon Museum at Palácio Pimenta is located in Campo Grande. If you take the metro, you’ll get to see some wonderful tiles, too!

Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm. For further details see the Museu de Lisboa website.

Where to find the best museums in Lisbon

To make your life a bit easier in terms of working out which museum to go to, I’ve plotted them on a map of Lisbon.

If you’d like to explore the patterns and colours traditionally used with azulejos check out this beautiful book.

Or check out the tile patterns in my online store.

If you’re planning on visiting several museums and monuments, it might be worth getting a Lisbon Card, which gives you discounts on museums and some of the many other things to do in Lisbon as well as free public transport around the city.

If you haven’t booked your Lisbon accommodation yet, check out these articles about the best areas to stay in Lisbon and 14 of the best holiday apartments in Lisbon.

10 Comments

  1. If you are a music lover, the Fado Museum is definitely worth checking out. Followed by and evening of…fado

    1. Thanks, Peter. I’m not that into fado but I have heard good things about the museum

  2. I am interested in the great Lisbon earthquake of 1755. Do you have suggestions of what sites to visit that would help me learn about this catastrophic event. I will be visiting with my wife and a couple friends for about three weeks starting in early April. We’ll be arriving in Lisbon and leaving from Porto.

    1. The Lisbon Story Centre does a pretty good job of explaining what happened during and in the aftermath. Sites to visit would be the Archaeological Museum in the Carmo church andIgreja de São Roque, which survived the earthquake.

  3. Thanks for this post – and all your lovely posts. I’m heading to Portugal in a few days and will certainly check out a least a few of these museums.
    Cheers!

    1. You’re welcome Paula. I hope you have a great trip!

  4. Ever been to the Maritime Museum? I’ve heard that one’s pretty good (especially with children).

    1. Not yet, Geoff but thanks for the suggestion.

  5. Crisp synopses of these top museums…I’d agree with this as the 6 must-visits. All deserve to be repeated, especially if one comes here each year or lives nearby. Love those Sunday free-entries, and Friday night at the Oriente lets one enjoy dinner nearby at the Alcantara docks.

    1. Thanks, Susan. Happy that you concur. And that’s a great suggestion for Fridays!

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