Museu de Marinha

The Museu de Marinha is run by the Portuguese navy and occupies the nineteenth-century west wing of the Jerónimos monastery; it grew from the collection King Luís I began in 1863 and opened here in 1963. Its range runs from models and instruments of the fifteenth and sixteenth-century voyages - astrolabes, charts, a copy of the padrão stones planted on newly claimed coasts - through naval history, the fishing fleets, and traditional craft including rabelos, moliceiros and fishing boats from the whole coast. In a separate pavilion behind stand the large objects: the royal barges, above all the 1780 brigantine built for Maria I, an enormous gilded rowing barge with eighty oarsmen, still used ceremonially into the twentieth century; and the Santa Cruz, the Fairey seaplane in which Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral made the first aerial crossing of the South Atlantic in 1922, navigating with an instrument Coutinho invented.

What to look for

• The royal barges - Maria I's 1780 gilded brigantine for eighty oarsmen.
• The Santa Cruz - the seaplane of the 1922 first South Atlantic crossing.
• The navigation instruments - astrolabes, charts and voyage-era equipment.
• The traditional craft - rabelos, moliceiros and coastal fishing boats.

When to go

Year-round. Two hours. It shares the Jerónimos building, so it is easy to combine with the monastery and the coach museum.

Things to know

Labelling is limited in English. The barge pavilion is a walk through the building from the main galleries. Belém is crowded.

Nearby

The Jerónimos monastery is in the same building; the coach museum and MAAT are nearby.

Key facts