Museu Benfica Cosme Damião
The Museu Benfica Cosme Damião (Benfica Museum), at Estádio da Luz, in Lisbon opened in 2013.
It has quickly become a popular attraction not just for supporters of Benfica who come to visit from all over Portugal but also foreign tourists interested in Portuguese football.
History
The Benfica Museum is named after Cosme Damião (1885-1947) , the man most responsible for the Benfica's birth and a famous player for and coach of the team, which remains Portugal's most well supported club.
The Benfica Museum is well laid out and can take a couple of hours to see all the exhibits on the three floors.
S. L. Benfica is not just a football club but has teams in other sports such as athletics, basketball, futsal, rugby, table tennis and volleyball. On entering the museum the hundreds of trophies won by these various Benfica teams are on display in glittering array behind glass panels.
Visitors can opt to visit just the museum or take a joint tour of the stadium along with the museum afterwards.
The spectacular 65,000 plus capacity Estádio da Luz replaced an older stadium on the same site and was built in time for Euro 2004.
A highlight of the stadium tour, which takes in the stands, a dressing room, the technical areas at the side of the pitch and the press room, is a photo opportunity with a real eagle, the symbol of the club who are known as the Eagles (Águias).
Exhibits
The museum has banks of touch screen computers showing video of the club's matches in their various sporting fields, a ride in an interactive lift and a huge wall panel and escalators paralleling the history of S. L. Benfica alongside the history of Portugal and the wider world.
Thus visitors to the Benfica Museum can learn something of the era of the dictator Antonio Salazar and the fado music of Amalia Rodrigues as well as the footballing exploits of Eusebio and João Pinto.
The Benfica Museum ends with the chance to beat a computer generated goalkeeper in a penalty shoot out on the top floor.
Benfica doesn't always beat its northern rivals FC Porto on the pitch but the Museu Benfica did pip the equally excellent Museu Futebol Clube do Porto to opening first in 2013.
Benfica's city rivals Sporting Clube de Portugal, also have a club museum, the World of Sporting at their cross town Estádio José Alvalade in Campo Grande.
Getting to Estádio da Luz
Estádio da Luz is at Luz Station / Colégio Militar on the Lisbon metro opposite the Colombo shopping mall.
Lisbon buses 750, 754 and 768 stop at the Colégio Militar bus terminal.
If coming by car GPS coordinates
38° 45' 13" N
9° 10' 59" W
There are several hotels near Sete Rios Station which is only 3 metro stops to Estádio da Luz among these are the 4-star Mercure Lisboa and the 5-star Corinthia Hotel Lisbon.
Museu Benfica Cosme Damião (museubenfica.slbenfica.pt)
Av. Eusébio da Silva Ferreira
1500-313 Lisboa
Tel: +351 707 200 100
Hours: 10am-6pm (on match days it closes at the beginning of the match).
Tickets for the museum cost 10 Euros and a combined ticket for the museum and tour is 15 Euros. The tour lasts for about 45 minutes and takes in the stadium and the changing rooms. It is not available on match days, two days prior to a match or the day after a match. There is usually a tour every 30 minutes and some of the guides also speak English on the tour for foreign visitors.
Reductions with the Lisboa Card.
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