Foz Palace
On Restauradores Square, an eighteenth-century palace that was a cinema, SPN headquarters and sports museum; under works, no reopening date.
Foz Palace – Restauradores Square
The Foz Palace, also known as the Castelo Melhor Palace, stands on Restauradores Square and is one of the most notable eighteenth-century buildings in the Baixa. Home to the Marquises of Castelo Melhor, it was sold in 1889 to Tristão Guedes de Queiroz Correia Castelo Branco, later Marquis of Foz, which gives the palace its present name. In 1908 the Salão Central opened in the building, the most luxurious cinema in Lisbon, later the Central Cinema, which closed in 1945; it was also the first screening room of the Cinemateca Portuguesa, between 1958 and 1980. In 1940 the State acquired the palace, which came to serve the Secretariado da Propaganda Nacional. The building is multipurpose: it has housed public services, recitals, exhibitions and presentations, the Cinemateca Júnior, since 2007, and the National Sports Museum, inaugurated on 12 July 2012. It belongs to the Secretariat-General of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. It is undergoing conservation works authorised in 2022, with the contract signed in March 2023, and the National Sports Museum states that its premises in the palace are closed indefinitely. It was not possible to confirm a reopening date or whether the interior receives visitors.
Located at: Museu Nacional do Desporto
Address: Praça dos Restauradores, 1250-187 Lisboa
Opening hours: Closed for conservation works; no reopening date confirmed
Coordinates: 38.7158014, -9.1424522
Buses: 732, 736, 709, 711, 746, 783, 19B, 759, 722, 744
Tram: 24E
Metro: Restauradores (Blue), Rossio (Green)
Train: Sintra Line, Rossio Station
Opened: 2012 (14 years)
