Portugal's Museums: Military Museum, Lisbon
Museu Militar de Lisboa
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.
Exhibits
The museum displays an extensive collection of armour, 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.
Military Museum - how to get to the Museu Militar in Lisbon
Military Museum
Largo Museu da Artilharia, 1100-366 Lisboa
Tel: 21 884 2300
The Museu Militar is in the square outside Apolonia Station which is on the Blue Line of the Lisbon metro.
Buses: #706, #712, #734, #728, #735, #759, #781, #782, #794.
Hours: 10 am-5 pm; closed Sunday and Monday
Admission: Reduced admission with the Lisboa Card