The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum

One man assembled all of this. Calouste Gulbenkian made a fortune in oil, spent decades buying at a rate of a few objects a year, and left the result to a foundation in Lisbon, where it opened in 1969 in a low concrete building set in its own garden. The founder's collection runs from Egyptian sculpture and Greek coins through Persian carpets, Ottoman ceramics and Chinese porcelain to Rembrandt, Rubens and eighteenth century French furniture, ending in a darkened room of Rene Lalique jewellery bought directly from the designer. A second building across the garden holds the modern collection, largely Portuguese painting of the twentieth century.

History

Land in the Parque de Santa Gertrudes was bought in April 1957 for the foundation's buildings and park, and a design competition two years later was won by the architects Alberto Pessoa, Pedro Cid and Ruy Jervis d'Athouguia with a team of landscape architects. The buildings and gardens were inaugurated on 2 October 1969 and won the Valmor Prize in 1975, and the Centro de Arte Moderna opened in 1983 (Wikipedia, Calouste Gulbenkian Museum).

What to look for

• The Lalique room - jewellery and glass bought straight from the designer.
• The Islamic rooms - Persian carpets, Iznik tiles and illuminated manuscripts.
• The European painting - Rembrandt, Rubens and eighteenth century France in a few small rooms.
• The garden - a landscaped hollow of ponds and shade between the two buildings.

When to go

Year-round and indoors. The founder's collection is compact enough for two hours and midweek mornings are close to empty. The garden is free and used by locals for lunch, so it works as a break between the two buildings. Concerts run in the auditoriums through the season. It closes one day a week.

Good to know

The building is austere 1960s concrete and does nothing to sell itself, so people expecting a palace are disappointed in the first room. Labels assume some background. The modern collection is a separate ticket and a separate mood, and not everyone wants both in one visit. It stands in a business quarter with nothing charming around it beyond the garden.

Nearby

The Praca de Espanha and Sao Sebastiao metro stops; Parque Eduardo VII downhill.

Key facts