Must see attractions in Belém

  • Top Choice
    Mosteiro dos Jerónimos

    Belém’s undisputed heart-stealer is this Unesco-listed monastery. The mosteiro is the stuff of pure fantasy: a fusion of Diogo de Boitaca’s creative…

  • Top Choice
    Museu Coleção Berardo

    Culture fiends can get their contemporary-art fix at Museu Coleção Berardo, the star of the Centro Cultural de Belém. The ultrawhite, minimalist gallery…

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    Top Choice
    Museu Nacional dos Coches

    Cinderella wannabes delight in Portugal's most visited museum, which dazzles with its world-class collection of 70 17th- to 19th-century coaches in an…

  • Torre de Belém

    Jutting out onto the Rio Tejo, this Unesco World Heritage–listed fortress epitomises the Age of Discoveries. You'll need to breathe in to climb the narrow…

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    Museu de Arte, Arquitetura e Tecnologia

    Lisbon's latest riverfront star is this low-rise, glazed-tiled structure that intriguingly hips and sways into ground-level exhibition halls. Visitors can…

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    Museu da Presidência da República

    Portugal's small presidential museum is worth a look for its fascinating state gifts exhibit – note the outrageous 1957 offering from Brazil's Juscelino…

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    Palácio Nacional da Ajuda

    Built in the early 19th century, this staggering neoclassical palace served as the royal residence from the 1860s until the end of the monarchy (1910)…

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    Antigo Picadeiro Real

    Lisbon's original coach museum is now home to just seven of these majestic 18th-century four-wheeled works of art, but it's worth also visiting the…

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    Palácio de Belém

    The salmon-slabbed 16th-century Belém Palace is Portugal's official presidential residence and office (though the country's previous president, Cavaco…

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    Padrão dos Descobrimentos

    The monolithic Padrão dos Descobrimentos, looking like a caravel ship frozen in midswell, was inaugurated in 1960 on the 500th anniversary of Henry the…

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    Jardim Botânico Tropical

    Far from the madding crowd, these botanical gardens bristle with hundreds of species, from date palms to monkey-puzzle trees. Spread across 7 hectares, it…

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    Museu de Marinha

    The Museu de Marinha is a nautical flashback to the Age of Discoveries, with its armadas of model ships, cannonballs and shipwreck booty. Dig for buried…

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    Museu Nacional de Arqueologia

    Housed in the western wing of Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, the intriguing stash here contains mesolithic flint stones, Egyptian mummies inside elaborately…

  • Museu de Arte Popular

    This museum is set in one of the remaining buildings from the 1940s Exhibition of the Portuguese World, part of the city's architectural heritage…