Military Museum
In the former Royal Arsenal at Santa Apolónia, one of the world's most complete artillery collections, with paintings and tiles.
Lisbon Military Museum – Former Royal Army Arsenal
Beside Santa Apolónia station, the Lisbon Military Museum occupies the former Royal Army Arsenal, built over the old Portas da Cruz storehouses where, since the time of King Manuel I, war materiel was kept, gunpowder was made and cannon were cast. Lost to a fire in 1726, the storehouses were rebuilt in the reign of King João V and, after the 1755 earthquake, adapted for the Arsenal; in the second half of the nineteenth century some of their rooms came to house the museum, founded in 1851 by Queen Maria II as the Artillery Museum. The building has been listed as a property of public interest since 1963. The collection brings together arms and armour and military equipment, and its collection of artillery pieces, which extends into the Cannon Courtyard, is considered one of the most complete in the world. The museum is also a place of art: its rooms hold canvases by Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro, José Malhoa, Carlos Reis, Sousa Lopes, Veloso Salgado and Condeixa, tiles by Manuel Gustavo Bordalo Pinheiro and Leopoldo Battistini, and the Plaster Room, which gathers moulds for statues of figures from Portuguese history and has at its centre the mould for the statue of King José I in Praça do Comércio. It is run by the Portuguese Army through its Directorate of Military History and Culture.
Located at: Exército Português
Address: Largo do Museu de Artilharia, 1100-366 Lisboa
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday 10:00-17:00 (closed on Mondays)
Phone: +351 218 842 569
Coordinates: 38.7130774, -9.1243809
Buses: 734, 10B, 13B, 728, 781, 782, 735, 759, 794, 706
Tram: 12E, 28E
Metro: Santa Apolónia (Blue)
Train: Azambuja Line, Santa Apolónia Station
Opened: 1851 (175 years)
