Medeiros e Almeida House-Museum

Medeiros e Almeida Museum – Medeiros e Almeida Foundation

In central Lisbon, the decorative-arts collection of António de Medeiros e Almeida (1895-1986), a businessman in British car imports, commercial aviation and the Azorean sugar and alcohol industries, is displayed in the house where he lived. With his wife, Margarida Pinto Basto, in 1943 he bought a mansion built in 1896, into which the couple moved in 1946. Childless, they decided to donate their collection to the nation: in 1968 the collector commissioned the architect Alberto Cruz to extend the house over the garden and adapt it as a museum, and in 1972 he created the Medeiros e Almeida Foundation. The work was finished in 1974, but the house-museum only opened to the public on 1 June 2001. The visit has two parts: the wing lived in by the owners, kept as it was, and the wing built over the garden, with panelling, painted ceilings and grand decoration. Its 27 rooms display some 2,000 works, from the 2nd century BC to the 20th century, including furniture, painting, sculpture, gold- and silverwork, jewellery, ceramics, fans and sacred art, with dedicated collections of clocks and watches, Chinese ceramics, silver and fans; highlights include a silver tea service that accompanied Napoleon into exile and a Breguet watch commissioned by Junot. Entry is temporarily via Rua Mouzinho da Silveira, 4.

Located at: Museu Medeiros e Almeida
Address: Rua Rosa Araújo, 41, 1250-194 Lisboa (entrada temporária pela Rua Mouzinho da Silveira, 4)
Opening hours: Monday to Saturday 10:00-17:00, last entry 16:30 (closed on Sundays); temporary entrance at Rua Mouzinho da Silveira, 4
Phone: +351 210 994 514
Coordinates: 38.7216803, -9.149145
Buses: 706, 709, 774, 19B, 773, 720, 727, 738, 711, 722
Tram: 24E
Metro: Avenida (Blue), Marquês de Pombal (Yellow, Blue)
Opened: 2001 (25 years)