Décio Thadeu Museum

Décio Thadeu Museum of Geology and Mineral Deposits – Instituto Superior Técnico

Housed on the second floor of the Mines Pavilion of Instituto Superior Técnico, in a space designed by the architect Pardal Monteiro, the Décio Thadeu Museum of Geology and Mineral Deposits was created in 1936, when Técnico opened its premises on Alameda D. Afonso Henriques. The collection, however, is older: it began at the Lisbon Industrial Institute and the Lisbon Industrial and Commercial Institute, built from foreign collections bought from specialist dealers and European collectors and from material gathered by lecturers and technicians on excursions and geological missions. With the founding of IST in 1911 it passed into the care of professors Amílcar Mário de Jesus and Ernest Fleury, and was later shaped by the work of Décio Thadeu (1919-1995), professor of Portuguese Geology and Palaeontology and a scholar of tin and wolfram deposits. Devoted to the geology and mineral deposits of Portugal and the Portuguese-speaking countries, the museum displays an important collection of stratigraphy and palaeontology, a significant sample of Portugal's main historic mines and equipment from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as a classroom and a laboratory designed for the building that retain many of their original features. It also holds the papers and belongings of Ernest Fleury and Décio Thadeu. Admission is free, but visits must be booked in advance.

Located at: Instituto Superior Técnico
Address: Instituto Superior Técnico, Pavilhão de Minas, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001 Lisboa
Opening hours: By prior appointment only (free admission)
Phone: +351 218 400 806
Coordinates: 38.735787, -9.1383455
Buses: 713, 716, 720, 722, 767, 742, 17B, 736, 49B, 726
Metro: Alameda (Red, Green), Arroios (Green)
Opened: 1936 (90 years)