Torre do Tombo National Archive
The kingdom's archive since the 14th century, now in a pyramidal 1990 building by the University City, with exhibitions.
Torre do Tombo National Archive
The Torre do Tombo is one of the oldest institutions in Portugal: the royal archive was installed in one of the towers of Lisbon castle, probably in the reign of King Fernando and certainly by 1378, the date of the earliest known certificate, and there it kept, until 1755, the records of the king, of the kingdom's administration and of the overseas possessions. The tower collapsed in the earthquake of 1 November 1755; the documents, recovered from the rubble under the direction of the keeper Manuel da Maia, were moved in 1757 to the Monastery of São Bento da Saúde, and the archive, named the National Archive in the regulations of 1823, went on to receive the records of the courts of the Ancien Régime and of the dissolved religious orders. The present building, on Alameda da Universidade, was purpose-built to a design by the studio of Arsénio Raposo Cordeiro, chosen in a competition from more than twenty entries; the foundation stone was laid in 1985 and it opened to the public in December 1990. Pyramidal at its base, with the initials TT marked throughout the structure and its façades crowned by eight gargoyles, it has been listed as a monument of public interest since 2012. It holds more than eight centuries of history, including the Corpo Cronológico, inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World register. The public and exhibition areas are open for free visits; guided tours, also free, must be booked ten days in advance.
Located at: Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo
Address: Alameda da Universidade, 1649-010 Lisboa
Opening hours: Public and exhibition areas: Monday to Friday 09:30-19:00, Saturday 09:30-12:15 (closed on Sundays); free guided tours by appointment (10 days in advance, groups of 5 to 25)
Phone: +351 210 037 100
Coordinates: 38.7545238, -9.1563781
Buses: 731, 735, 738, 755, 764, 768, 701, 736, 783, 798
Metro: Cidade Universitária (Yellow), Campo Grande (Yellow, Green)
Opened: 1378 (648 years)
