Museu de Marinha in Lisbon

On my request, my VA compiled a list of museums in and around Lisbon for me. The Museu de Marinha (in Belem) is free on the 1st Sunday of every month (which today, Oct 1, happens to be) so I decided to check it out. I did pay the extra for the temporary exhibition Vikings although it wasn’t as educational or even as entertaining as I expected it to be so I don’t recommend it. In fact, if you have a Netflix subscription, watch the series Vikings (its gruesome and probably inaccurate but definitely entertaining)

As for the Museu de Marinha itself, I highly recommend it. Here are some of my random thoughts and photographs of the visit.

Entrance to the Museum (which itself is tucked away on the side of the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos)

The entrance itself is impressive with a tall ceiling of many (probably unnecessary) arches. Beneath it sits a statue of Prince Henry (Infante D. Henrique) who is credited with launching the Age of Discoveries for Portugal.

There’s also a giant map behind him of the Portuguese exploration. Naturally, I was curious about their conquest of Goa so I zoomed in for a closer look.

According the the map, there’s a route taken by Pedro Alvares Cabral in 1500 from Portugal to Brazil, then past the Cape of Good Hope onwards to the East Coast of Africa and finally Goa. Vasco da Gama it seems, went straight to Cochin. Some day soon I will research more about these sea routes.

Observe the teal colored line showing the route of Pedro Alvares Cabral from Brasil to Goa.

The museum has a large variety of ship models progressing from charming early 14th century merchant ships all the way to the less-impressive 21st century destroyer ships and submarines.

This one is an early 16th centurey “Taforeia” designed to transport horses.

This 16th century ship was called “Madre de Deus” for obvious reasons. Interestingly, it made two round voyages to India.

21st century submarines with torpedos (meh..)

It was a bit disappointing to see the transition of ships as vessels of exploration and commerce into vessels of war over the years.

I did however find a small label in the exhibit that mentioned the “myth” of the School of Sagres.

Since I had never heard of this School before, I believe the myth even more now.

(hint: This could be the start of a great Dan Brown novel)

If you like Museums and you’re in/around Lisbon, here’s the map i referred to earlier with information about free days and museum timings. Feel free to use and share.

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