Gulbenkian, the Coach Museum or MAAT: three Lisbon museums compared

The short answer

These three Lisbon museums answer different interests, so the choice is mostly about subject. The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum is one man's art collection: about six thousand works acquired by Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian, from Ancient Egypt to the 20th century, of which the galleries display around a thousand.[1] The National Coach Museum shows 70 vehicles from the 16th to the 19th century, most of them from the Portuguese royal household, according to the page Museus e Monumentos de Portugal publishes for it.[8] MAAT, the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, is the EDP Foundation's programme of contemporary exhibitions in a converted power station and a riverside gallery, with a permanent exhibition about electricity.[9]

They are run by three different bodies and sell three different tickets. XTOUR does not rank them.

The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum: one collector's taste

The museum's collection page describes a route through the galleries that begins in Ancient Egypt, moves through the Islamic world, China and Japan, and ends in Europe.[1] Its building page divides the permanent galleries into two independent circuits, one for Eastern and Classical art and one for European art, the second ending with René Lalique's jewellery and glass in a room of its own.[2] Highlights the collection page names include its Greek coins, an Assyrian relief from the palace of Ashurnasirpal and a group of Armenian illuminated parchments of the 16th and 17th centuries.[1]

The building is part of the attraction. It was inaugurated in 1969, designed by Ruy Jervis d'Athouguia, Pedro Cid and Alberto Pessoa, and set in a garden by Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles and António Viana Barreto on the Parque de Santa Gertrudes in Palhavã; the Foundation says it won the Valmor Prize in 1975 and was classified a National Monument in 2010.[2] Gulbenkian himself, born in Üsküdar in the Ottoman Empire, moved to Lisbon when the Second World War broke out and lived there until his death in 1955.[4]

The museum has been renovated. Its reopening page says it reopened a year and a half after closing for renovation, with a new numismatics room and a renovated Lalique Room that now also shows paintings by Burne-Jones and Singer Sargent. The page text gives no reopening date.[3]

Two of the Foundation's pages count the collection slightly differently: the collection page says around six thousand works reaching the 20th century, while the founder's page says more than 6,000 pieces reaching the early 20th century.[4][1] The difference does not change what is on display.

On tickets, the Foundation's tickets page says they are sold online or at its ticket offices, and lists a Museum ticket that includes admission to the CAM Collection as well as an all-inclusive ticket for the Museum and CAM.[5] CAM is the Foundation's Centro de Arte Moderna, which XTOUR does not cover separately.

The National Coach Museum: carriages of the royal household

The museum's own site says it was founded in 1905 by Queen Amélia and has been housed since 2015 in a building by the Pritzker Prize winner Paulo Mendes da Rocha on Avenida da Índia.[6] Museus e Monumentos de Portugal's page names Ricardo Bak Gordon as his partner on the project.[8]

That page describes what is on show: 70 vehicles, the oldest from the 16th century and the most recent a 19th-century mail coach, mostly from the Portuguese royal household, with others from Church property and private collections. It singles out the Coach of the Oceans, part of the embassy King João V sent to Pope Clement XI in 1716. Beyond the vehicles, the same page lists objects used with them and in gala processions, items connected with horsemanship and equestrian games, and a collection of portraits of the Portuguese royal family.[8]

The museum began in the Royal Riding School in Belém, whose construction started in 1787 to a neoclassical design attributed to Giacomo Azzolini; it was adapted as a museum in 1904 and opened as the Royal Coach Museum on 23 May 1905.[6]

Here the official pages pull in different directions. The museum's home page still presents "one museum, two locations", the new building and the Royal Riding School, and also describes a 2025 project moving eight National Treasures and over 170 objects out of the former Riding School as part of a PRR-funded refurbishment.[6] The Museus e Monumentos de Portugal page says plainly that the Royal Riding School is closed to the public for requalification works under the PRR.[8] XTOUR does not know when the Riding School will reopen.

The museum's visit page links online ticket sales and says free admission is checked at the ticket offices or validation stations against a valid official document.[7]

MAAT: contemporary art in a power station and a riverside gallery

MAAT's about page says it was inaugurated in October 2016 under the EDP Foundation's cultural patronage and sits on the riverfront in Belém. It has two buildings joined by a park: MAAT Central, the former Central Tejo power station, and MAAT Gallery, a building by Amanda Levete's firm AL_A that opened in 2016, with MAAT Garden between them. Alongside its temporary exhibitions, the page names permanent displays: The Electricity Factory in Central Tejo and sculptures in the outdoor spaces. The EDP Foundation's own collections are Portuguese contemporary art from the 1960s onwards and an energy heritage collection of about 3,500 pieces.[9]

The same page dates the power station two ways. It calls MAAT Central a "former power station built in 1908", and a few paragraphs later says Central Tejo was "constructed between the 1910s and 1940s" and operated continuously from 1909 to 1954. The page also says the present building is the result of later enlargements; XTOUR repeats neither date as the building's single date. It records that Central Tejo was listed in 1986 and first opened to the public in 1990 as the Museu da Eletricidade.[9]

MAAT's tickets page lists one set of entrance fees for all locations, priced differently for residents of Portugal and for residents outside Portugal.[11] Its visit page says large bags (baby bags excepted), umbrellas and pets (guide dogs excepted) may not be taken into the museum.[10] The about page describes MAAT Garden as freely accessible.[9]

How the three compare

The Coach Museum's site says the former Army General Workshops in Belém were acquired for its new building, and MAAT's pages place it in Belém; the Gulbenkian's building page places it in Palhavã.[2][10][6] XTOUR does not publish how long it takes to get from one to another.

XTOUR's reading is that the question to ask is what you want to look at. A traveller drawn to paintings, sculpture and decorative art across many periods is asking the Gulbenkian's question. One interested in court ceremony, craftsmanship and the history of transport is asking the Coach Museum's. One who wants current contemporary art, architecture or the industrial building itself is asking MAAT's. The Jerónimos and Belém Tower guide covers the two monuments that share Belém with the Coach Museum and MAAT.

Museums this page does not cover

This page does not describe the National Museum of Ancient Art or the National Tile Museum; what XTOUR has read about their current status is on their own place pages.

What XTOUR does not tell you

XTOUR does not publish prices, opening hours, closing days, last-entry times, accessibility information or visit lengths for any of these museums, and it does not sell their tickets. Each museum's own site publishes its current terms. For the city as a whole, see the Lisbon destination page and the Portugal country page.