MILITARY MUSEUM

LISBON - AROUND THE MILITARY MUSEUM

 

2 - MILITARY MUSEUM ( ***** )

The Military Museum (Museu Militar de Lisboa) is situated in the eastern part of Lisbon, adjacent to Santa Apolonia train station. The majority of Portugal's large towns and cities boast a Museu Militar; Lisbon's is the largest in the country and among the largest in the world.

Lisbon's Museu Militar is housed in a grand building that was formerly the Royal Arsenal, where foundries were established to build artillery pieces and cannons from the late 15th century of Portuguese history.
The museum displays an extensive collection of armor, weapons, paintings, uniforms and historical military documents.
One room in the museum is dedicated to the explorer Vasco da Gama with a collection of old cannons and modern murals depicting the discovery of the sea route to India. Vasco da Gama's sword is also on display here. Another room is dedicated to the Peninsular War, fought by Portuguese and British troops against Napoleon.
The first floor has exhibition rooms focused on the First World War, when Portuguese forces clashed with German troops in its African colonies of Angola and Mozambique. Portugal also sent over 50,000 soldiers to the Western Front where they fought with heroism and sustained terrible losses.
Other rooms have exhibits on the evolution of weapons in Portugal from the earliest blades made of flint to the spears and rifles. The superb courtyard, flanked by cannons, tells the history of Portugal in panels of azulejos tiles from the Christian Reconquista to the First World War. In the oldest part of the museum, the Portuguese artillery section displays the carriage used to transport the Arco da Rua Augusta monument to its place in the Praça do Comércio after the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755.

The museum is said to feature one of the finest and widest collections of swords, firearms and, generally speaking, warfare-related items in the world. Highlights refer to a massive 14th-century bronze cannon (weighing more than 20 tons), to Vasco da Gama’s sword (displayed in the Vasco da Gama room, where there are also showcased items related to the history of the way the sea route to India was discovered), to the collection of World War One exhibits and to the Portuguese artillery section.
The museum also accommodates a scattered collection of fine artworks (chiefly, paintings and sculptures). The museum, formerly dubbed the Artillery Museum, is located just nearby the Santa Apolonia Train Station. It can be visited with a 20% discount by holders of a Lisbon Card.

Largo dos Caminhos de Ferro
Lisbon
PHONE 00 351 21 884 2516

Besides the Santa Apolónia train station, in the old armory, is the Military Museum. The exhibitions over 33 rooms cover over 500 years of Lisbon’s military history. Portugal’s history is celebrated through an exhibition of weapons, armor, paintings, sculpture, and tiles. The cellars are the site of ever-changing temporary exhibitions.

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