Prior to 1415, the European worldview did not extend beyond Cape St. Vincent. However, under the leadership and funding of Prince Henry the Navigator, Portugal struck out in the venerable caravel to discover a route around the Cape of Good Hope and onward to India and China and, in the process, stumbled upon South America. In the early 1600s, one could travel from Lisbon to China and never leave sight of land explored by these early Portuguese navigators whose names include Dias, Cabral, Magellan, and of course, Vasco da Gama.
In the Belém district outside Lisbon, you’ll find the Portugal Maritime Museum—Museu de Marinha. Occupying the west wing of the famous, and well visited, Monastery of Jerónimos, the Maritime Museum, founded by King Luis in July 1863, is refreshingly uncrowded. It holds more than 17,000 items, 2,500 of which are part of the permanent exhibition and present Portugal’s pioneering roles in astronomical navigation, exploration, naval development, and maritime aviation. The museum is bursting with artifacts, exquisite ship models, navigation tools, weapons, uniforms, and maps from the early days of discovery up through the modern era. Display descriptions are provided in Portuguese and English.
A statue of Prince Henry the Navigator welcomes visitors at the entrance hall, and behind him is a map of the world, showing the routes of Portuguese explorers. Additional larger-than-life statues of early explorers invite you into the well-documented and superbly organized museum. The first section, Discoveries Hall, brings together the most important items that gave Portugal primacy in Atlantic voyages and discovery of new lands and people. Devoted to Portugal’s successive maritime feats, it chronicles the development of shipbuilding and astronomical navigational instruments from the mid-15th century onward.
The museum’s remarkable collection of model ships illustrates in detail the gradual transition from the basic ships used in the earliest explorations to the innovative square-rigged caravels that later traversed the world’s oceans and returned with riches in spices and gold. Visitors can marvel at the display of rare navigational instruments, astrolabes, and maps depicting how the world appeared before and during Portugal’s golden Age of Discovery.
Spices were not the only source of Portugal’s vast wealth during the 1500s and 1600s. The museum does not shy away from Portugal’s involvement in the slave trade. The Portuguese fully grasp their responsibility in the spread of slavery, especially to Brazil, and a display reminds visitors of that history. The collection also features replicas of the famous stone pillars known as padrões that the great pioneering navigators such as Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama erected to mark the site of each new landfall and territorial advance.
The Tall Ships Exhibit Hall features Portuguese naval activity in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The exhibits in this section display how, to protect their trade routes and colonies from emerging Dutch and British interference, Portugal began arming its merchantmen and building the dedicated warships of a standing navy. The model of the frigate D. Fernando II e Gloria is worth seeing. Built in Goa in 1843, she was the last ship to sail the India Run, which started in the 16th century. Fully restored, she recreates the interior and day-to-day life of a mid-19th-century ship.
In the 19th- and 20th-century halls, 60 model warships document the evolution of a modern navy that paralleled developments of the great naval powers of the day. Included is a model of the cruiser NRP Adamastor, funded by contributions from ordinary Portuguese citizens in an attempt to restore Portugal’s honor following the humiliating 1890 British Ultimatum, which forced the Portuguese monarchy to cede Angola and Mozambique. The ship played an active role in the revolutionary movement that led to the founding of the Portuguese Republic.
The exhibit continues through the modern era with a room about Portugal’s colonial wars in Africa, known as the Guinea-Bissau and Mozambican Wars of Independence. The 13-year conflict between Portugal’s military and the emerging nationalist movements in Portugal’s African colonies occurred between 1961 and 1974. This room concludes Portugal’s naval history with a exhibition of the contemporary means with which the Portuguese Navy perform missions on sea, land, and air in defense of the republic.
After exiting the naval exhibits, visitors enter a room displaying the diversity of craft used along Portuguese waterways, including the “Targus Frigate” used for transporting merchandise. In the Deep Sea and Coastal Fishing Rooms, one learns about Portugal’s rich fishing industry with many models of fishing vessels, some of which are still in use today. The last exhibit in the monastery building is the Royal Cabin Room, which holds a reconstruction of the king and queen’s finely appointed staterooms from King Carlos I’s royal yacht Amelia in 1938. This room also includes porcelain, crystal, and silver artifacts from the yacht.
Visitors then can venture outside (under a connecting gallery) to reach the large Barge Pavilion—a warehouse-size room of historic sailboats and ceremonial barges. A major highlight of the museum is the Sírius, a 95-foot galliot built for the 1778 royal marriage of Portugal’s King João VI and Princess Carlota Joaquina of Spain, with seats for no fewer than 80 oarsmen. This very barge transported Queen Elizabeth II down the Tagus River during her 1957 state visit. A balcony allows visitors to look down the length of this stately vessel.
Next comes an exhibit on Portuguese naval aviation from the first flights until naval aviation was absorbed into the Portuguese Air Force. The centerpiece of this exhibit is one of the museum’s star attractions, a replica of the Santa Cruz seaplane in which two intrepid Portuguese aviators—Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral—courageously flew across the South Atlantic from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro in 1922.
After leaving the museum, a short walk to the north bank of the River Tagus is the Tower of Belém. Once in the middle of the river, this small fortress has been welcoming homesick sailors back to the Portuguese capital since the early 16th century. Close by, the eye-catching Monument to the Discoveries commemorates the country’s many seafaring successes with statues of the key figures involved.
