Your tour includes a professional guide, English speaking & transfers R/T hotel by car. Tours are for 4 hours.
National Palace of Ajuda
In the first half of the 18th century, King John V planned to build a summer residence in the Ajuda hill. The building of this Royal Palace in this place, however, would take place only after the Earthquake of 1755 which destroyed the royal residence, Paço da Ribeira (Ribeira Palace), at the Terreiro do Paço (Palace Public Square). On King José I 's initiative, the Royal Palace of Ajuda was built on the grounds acquired by his father firstly as a wooden building - commonly known as the Real Barraca (the Royal Hut) which burned to the ground in 1794 - and then as the Palace as it is nowadays.
The original project showed clearly Baroque architectural trends, but it was soon replaced by another in neoclassic style by the architects Francisco Xavier Fabri and José da Costa e Silva. Although the first stone was laid in 1795, only in 1802 did the construction of the Palace start. The Royal family had to leave to Brazil in 1807 and soon the works went on slowly along the first half of the 19th century. Only in 1861, after the proclamation of King Louis I (1838-1889) and after his marriage to the Princess of Savoy, Dona Maria Pia (1847-1911), did the Ajuda Palace really become the official residence of the Portuguese Monarchy. Balls and several ceremonies were held in the Palace rooms which became the centre of the Portuguese Court in the 19th century. The Palace was closed after the proclamation of the Republic in 1910 and reopened to the public in 1968, as a Museum. Gathering important collections from the 15th to the 20th century, mainly of decorative arts, the Palace is still used by the Portuguese State for official ceremonies.
Carmo Archaeological Museum
Housed in the ruins of the Convento do Carmo. Contains a collection of pieces documenting the city's history from the pre-historical period to the present day.
Lisbon Ocean Pavillion
Visitors will never cease to be amazed as they journey through Europe's largest Oceanarium. Inhabited by 16.000 animals and plants representing over 450 different species, and reconstituting various of the oceans' ecosystems, the Oceanarium offers visitors a unique and enchanting experience.
Portuguese Maritime Museum
Different kinds of boats, royal barges, ship models, and maritime instruments and charts. The Bergantim Real, a sumptuous state barge built in Lisboa in 1778, and the hydro-plane used by Portuguese aviators Sacadura Cabral and Gago Coutinho in 1922 to cross the Southern Atlantic for the first time.
Calouste Gulbenkian Museum
In all there are more than six thousand works of art that Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian collected over the years. During his exile in Portugal, where he would live out his last days, he donated his collection to the Foundation that today bears his name. Today, the place joins art, pleasure and culture in a perfect symbiosis.
Located near the Praça de Espanha, the Fundação Calouste Gulkbenkian is fully part of the Portuguese cultural universe. In its headquarters, planted among extensive grass fields, there are amphitheaters and ballet halls, meeting rooms, galleries for expositions, museums and spaces for leisure and pleasure.
Belonging to the Fundação, the Museu, inaugurated in 1969 and reopened recently with a new presentation, houses part of the exceptional collection in various core sections that make up the exposition area.
The collection comprises Egyptian Art, Greco-Roman Art with particular emphasis on a collection of Greek coins, Islamic Art with a set of tapestries, faiance and glassware, and Chinese and Japanese Art with collections of ceramics, lacquer and stamped items.
Among the varios pieces of European painting, there are works by Rogier van der Weyden, Ghirlandaio, Frans Hals, Rembrandt, Fragonard, Manet and Degas, among others. In the various permanent exposition rooms of the Museum we find also French furniture and jewelry, culminating in an exposition of a notable collection of glassware and jewels from René Lalique, which is unique in the world.
Chiado Museum/National Museum of Modern Art
A recent museum. Most significant Romantic, naturalistic, modernist, surrealist and abstractionist Portuguese artists from 1850 to 1960. Located right in the heart of Lisboa, in the Chiado zone, the Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea was founded in 1911, installed in the old Convento de São Francisco. At the start of the 1990s, the building was completely remodeled, reopening in 1994 with the new name Museu do Chiado.
The exposition starts by showing us references from the surrealism of the end of the 1950s, with drawings from sculptor Jorge Vieira and photographs from Fernando Lemos. It then takes us to the 1960s, tracing the design and painting of the post-surrealists like Marcelino Vespeira, the abstract geometric canvases of Joaquim Rodrigo, the nouveaux realism of the work of Lourdes Castro, the machines in movement of René Bertholo, the silhouettes and symmetries of José Escada, the torn canvases of João Pinheiro, until we reach the unexpected surfaces created by Pires Vieira.
The next room, dedicated to the 1970s, shows two essential Portuguese artists: Helena Almeida, with her skillful photographs/paintings, and Alberto Carneiro, with two installations that explore the themes of perception and representation of the exterior world.
From the 1970s we jump right to the 1990s, a core constituted of contemporary art that the museum has commissioned. Here we find the work of Miguel Palma, Ângela Ferreira, João Tabarra, João Onofre and João Penalva - one of the Portuguese artists of the moment with great international interest.
Music Museum
Permanent exhibition of musical instruments from old times and from different parts of the world. Frequent music shows.
National Museum of Archaeology
Housed in the south wing of the Jeronimos Monastery complex. Exhibits from the prehistoric, protohistoric, Roman, Visigoth, Arab and medieval periods. Ethnography and numismatics sections. Jewellery from the calcolithic period to Visigothic times. Egyptian antiquities.
National Museum of Ancient Art
Founded in 1884. It has 12th to early 19th century sculptures, drawings, goldwork, jewels, pottery, textiles, paintings and furniture. Paintings by Portuguese masters and by European artists, religious statues and objects in gold and silver make this museum one of the most important ones in Portugal.
National Museum of Tiles
This museum is in the Convento da Madre de Deus and houses a 15th to 20th century collection of Portuguese tiles, as well as a number of tiles from Spain and Holland.
Roman Theater Archaeological Museum
The Roman Theater is one of the most important monuments in Lisbon. Built in the time of Emperor Augustus and rebuilt in the year 57 dc, it was abandoned in the 4th century and it was rediscovered in 1798, after the Lisbon eartquake. The Museum allows visitors to get to know the monument and to see important archeological pieces collected from the site.
