São Roque Museum

Church and Museum of São Roque – Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa

On Largo Trindade Coelho, the São Roque Museum was one of the first art museums created in Portugal: it opened to the public on 11 January 1905 as the Museum of the Treasure of the Chapel of St John the Baptist. It occupies the former professed house of the Society of Jesus, next to the Church of São Roque, inaugurated in 1573 and one of the three oldest Jesuit churches in the country, which in 1768, after the expulsion of the Jesuits, was donated with all its possessions to the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa. The church, with a single nave and eight side chapels, preserves the only one of Lisbon's great Mannerist painted ceilings to survive, executed between 1587 and 1589, a sacristy lined with painting cycles by André Reinoso and by Domingos da Cunha, 'o Cabrinha', and a 1784 organ by António Xavier Machado e Cerveira. The museum is arranged in five sections, from the old Hermitage of São Roque to the Society of Jesus, Asian art and the history of the Misericórdia, founded in 1498. The highlight is the treasure of the Chapel of St John the Baptist, commissioned by King João V and made entirely in Rome, with eighteenth-century Italian goldsmiths' work, vestments and liturgical books, classified as a National Treasure.

Located at: Museu de São Roque
Address: Largo Trindade Coelho, 1200-470 Lisboa
Opening hours: museum: Tuesday to Sunday 10:00-18:00 (closed on Mondays); church: Monday 13:00-18:00 and Tuesday to Sunday 10:00-18:00 (October to March), Monday 13:00-19:00 and Tuesday to Sunday 10:00-19:00 (April to September)
Phone: +351 213 235 065
Coordinates: 38.7134426, -9.1431141
Buses: 758, 19B, 22B, 759, 709, 711, 746, 783, 732, 736
Tram: 24E, 28E, 12E
Metro: Restauradores (Blue), Baixa-Chiado (Blue, Green)
Train: Sintra Line, Rossio Station, Cascais Line, Cais do Sodré Station
Opened: 1905 (121 years)