Go to Belem for Lisbon’s Museums
A Palace, a Monastery and Four Museums Celebrate Portugal’s Culture
Lisbon's Belem neighborhood on the Taugus is so separated from the city's historic center that it seems like another town - one filled with parks, monuments and art.
Belem's centerpiece is the enormous and sprawling Jeronimos monastery, one of the three major monasteries in Portugal, built after the discovery of the sea route to India in 1499. It is the definitive example of Portugal's unique Manueline decorative style, stonework deeply carved in nautical motifs. Under soaring stone vaulting is the tomb of explorer Vasco da Gama. Look for the pillars carved to look like trees, and for other whimsical details.
The double cloister is outstanding, its arches spanned with delicately carved stone tracery. Look especially at the designs worked into the columns; it's no wonder UNESCO named this a World Heritage Site.
Belem stretches along the broad Taugus (Tejo) River, and it has become Lisbon’s museum district. On the Lisbon side of the monastery is Ajuda Palace, worth seeing for its sheer over-the-top opulence. The Coach Museum, in the grand 18th-century royal riding school, has one of the most complete collections of royal coaches in Europe. The status symbols of their day, they range from the swirling rococo of grand coronation and ambassadorial coaches to the little carriage of the king's illegitimate sons (note that the crown on the coat of arms is askew).
The large Monument to the Discoveries overlooks the river like a huge ship prow. It commemorates Prince Henry the Navigator, who inspired Portugal's age of discovery in the 1400s, as well as other early explorers. It was from Belem that many of them set sail: Bartholomeu Dias to round the Cape of Good Hope, Ferdinand Magellan, Vasco da Gama to first sail a sea route to India.
The Museu Nacional de Arte Popular, beyond the monument, is a mini-tour through the provinces of Portugal showing the enormous variety of its folk arts. The displays are lively and interesting; look for the painted gypsy wagon.
The Museu de Marinha shows Portugal's love affair with the sea, with an outstanding collection of ships and boats that includes a royal barge built in 1778 and models of 15th- to 20th-century vessels, from the explorers' caravels to submarines.
A new addition, opened in 2007, is the Berardo Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, comprising one of the world's best modern art collections. At least 250 paintings, sculptures and photographs by Picasso, Dali, Warhol, Magritte, Miró, Jackson Pollock, and others fill two floors.
The Museu Nacional de Arqueologia holds some of the country's most ancient artifacts, from prehistoric stone carvings to art from Roman settlements and a collection of rare gold jewelry.
About a 20-minute walk along the river-front is the Torre de Belem, an impressive Manueline tower built in 1515 in the middle of the river, left high (but not entirely dry) after the 1755 earthquake changed the river's course. Now a museum of the Portuguese seafaring tradition, it is interesting for its castle-like architecture and setting.
Several restaurants and cafes line Rua Belem just east of the monastery. Most famous of them is the local favorite Antiga Confeitaria de Belem. Known for its custard tarts - pasteis de Belem - the tile-lined café has been baking them since 1841.
To reach Belem from central Lisbon, take the old fashioned tram #15 from Praca Comercio to the station in Belem, beside the monastery.
