Museum of Portuguese Decorative Arts
At Portas do Sol, a 17th-century palace with furniture, silver, faience and tiles from the 15th to 18th centuries, and craft workshops.
Museum of Portuguese Decorative Arts – Azurara Palace (Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva Foundation)
On Largo das Portas do Sol, above Alfama, the Museum of Portuguese Decorative Arts occupies the Azurara Palace, a building of 17th-century origin classified as a Property of Public Interest. It was the banker and collector Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva who bought the palace to house part of his private collection, restoring it with the help of the architect Raul Lino as an 18th-century aristocratic house. In 1953 he set up the Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva Foundation, made up from the outset of the Museum-School of Decorative Arts, with the aim of protecting and promoting the Portuguese decorative arts and the crafts associated with them. The collection, assembled mostly at national and international auctions by a man who sought to recover pieces of Portuguese heritage, offers a journey through the decorative arts from the 15th to the 18th century, arranged in sections devoted to furniture, textiles, silverwork, Chinese porcelain, Portuguese faience and tiles, painting, drawing, sculpture and bookbinding. The route passes through rooms such as the Salão Nobre, the D. João V Room, the Music Room and the 17th-Century Bedroom, where the pieces take on a theatrical value. The foundation also runs sixteen workshops of traditional arts and crafts and a School of Arts and Crafts, which ensure the passing on of craft skills and carry out conservation and restoration work. There are daily guided tours in Portuguese and English.
Located at: Fundação Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva
Address: Largo das Portas do Sol, 2, 1100-411 Lisboa
Opening hours: Wednesday to Monday 10:00-17:00 (October to May) and 10:00-18:00 (June to September); closed on Tuesdays, 1 Jan, 1 May and 25 Dec
Phone: +351 218 814 640
Coordinates: 38.7120729, -9.1304407
Buses: 10B, 737, 734, 13B, 728, 735, 759, 794, 797
Tram: 12E, 28E
Metro: Terreiro do Paço (Blue), Rossio (Green)
Train: Azambuja Line, Santa Apolónia Station, Sintra Line, Rossio Station
Boat: Terreiro do Paço River Station
Opened: 1953 (73 years)
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