Carmo Convent

Why go

The museum's history page says the Carmo church was founded in 1389 by the Constable Nuno Álvares Pereira, that the 1755 earthquake and fire left it badly damaged, that rebuilding in a neo-Gothic style stopped for good in 1834 when the religious orders were abolished, and that in the mid-19th century the naves were deliberately left open to the sky, so the ruins became a memorial of the earthquake. The Carmo Archaeological Museum (Museu Arqueológico do Carmo) was founded in the ruins in 1864 by the first president of the Association of Portuguese Archaeologists, which has its seat there and runs the museum. The museum says it shows about a thousand artefacts from Prehistory to the present, including Roman inscriptions and pre-Columbian ceramics and mummies. Its visitor page lists admission tickets, suggests asking at the ticket office when the next guided tour starts, does not allow flash photography or tripods, and asks that large wheeled suitcases be left at reception, subject to space. Wikidata (Q1470414) records the convent, with the church ruins as a part; this record is the convent site and the museum in it.