Navy Museum, Lisbon, Portugal

The Navy Museum is a maritime museum in Lisbon, dedicated to all aspects of the history of navigation in Portugal. It occupies a part of the neo-Manueline Western wing of the Jerónimos Monastery with the National Museum of Archaeology, as well as a modern annex built to the North of the monastery.

The history of the museum is connected to King Luís I (1838-1889), who had a strong interest in oceanographic studies and an accomplished navigator himself. In 1863, he began collecting items related to the preservation of maritime history of Portugal, a collection that was enlarged in the following decades, culminating in the inauguration of the Maritime Museum in 1963 in its present location.

The exhibits include historical paintings, archaeological items and many scale models of ships used in Portugal since the 15th century, a collection of navigations instruments and maps, royal barges, as well as the Fairey III 'Santa Cruz' that crossed the Atlantic in 1923, and the Portuguese Navy's first aircraft, an FBA Type B flying boat.

References:

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User Reviews

Laszlo Nagy (2 years ago)
Very nice experience. You can really have the opportunity to discover the past of Portuguese sailing and all kinds of old and newer ships. A lot of worldwide history and related warships. Also a hangar full of real size ships and boats. A must see for sure. It is an experience not seen anywhere else. Very nice museum and it is not crowded.

Kevin Buselmeier (2 years ago)
Absolute must see attraction in Lisboa. The Portuguese maritime history is so vital to world history and is so well documented here. One will learn so much. The artifacts are mind blowing as are the model ships. Do not miss the statute of Archangel Raphael (4 photo with blow backing board) Amazing history of this piece. A+++++++

Malvolio Zebedoski (2 years ago)
A museum triumphantly telling Portugal's maritime history. The panel about slavery would do well to add that Portugal trafficked 6 million enslaved people and profited enormously. I highly recommend the book, ‘Conquerors’ if you want to learn a bit more about the real history of the Discoveries. Besides this, the building is quite beautiful. Most of exhibits are models of ships boats throughout history.

Rika (2 years ago)
Great exihibition, especially after the first 3rd (1st part just extravargant display of royal portugal men exploring the sea which was too heroic and neglectant of the local population from my POV) but otherwise very good explanation tables in English and it got better with every piece of exhibition, wonderful historical pieces (maps, ships small and life sized, cool metall canons and nautic equipment. Just sad, that some pieces were replicas because the original was in some other random museum in France, Germany or Austria... :( they should give it back, at the end on the first floor, there is a cool art exhibition

Mark Buchholz (2 years ago)
If you are a fan of nautical history this is the place to go. You will get a history of ship building and the exploration of the world to help you understand the history of colonialism. Many intriguing notes of the various ships, instruments and people who first navigated the globe

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