Explore Lisbon

The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum shows the collection of the Armenian oil magnate Calouste Gulbenkian in a building and garden inaugurated in 1969. One circuit covers ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome and the Islamic world; the other runs through European painting, sculpture and French decorative arts to René Lalique's jewellery.

The Sanctuary of Christ the King stands on a clifftop in Almada, across the Tagus from Lisbon. Inaugurated in 1959 and inspired by Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, it is a 28-metre statue of Christ by Francisco Franco on an 82-metre pedestal by António Lino. A lift rises to a terrace at the statue's feet above the 25 de Abril Bridge.

Lisbon Zoo was founded in 1884 and has occupied the gardens of the Quinta das Laranjeiras in Sete Rios since 1905. It keeps about 2,000 animals of more than 300 species and takes part in breeding programmes for endangered species. A small cable car crosses part of the grounds, and the Baía dos Golfinhos holds dolphin presentations.

MAAT is the EDP Foundation's museum of contemporary art, architecture and technology on the Belém riverfront. Its low curved building by Amanda Levete's practice, clad in white ceramic tiles and with a roof visitors can walk over, opened in October 2016 beside the Tejo Power Station, a former power plant whose halls also hold exhibitions.

The Palace of Ajuda is a neoclassical royal palace on the Ajuda hill above Belém, begun at the end of the 18th century where a wooden royal residence had stood after the 1755 earthquake, and never finished to its original plan. It became the main home of King Luís I and Queen Maria Pia, and its rooms keep their 19th-century furnishings.

The Royal Treasure Museum opened in 2022 in the newly completed west wing of the Palace of Ajuda, around a strongroom 40 metres long closed by steel doors. Its eleven sections show the Portuguese crown, sceptre and royal jewels, gold and diamonds from Brazil, coins and medals, diplomatic gifts and the Germain silver table service.

The National Coach Museum in Belém holds coaches and carriages of the Portuguese royal houses from the 16th to the 19th century, part of about 9,000 objects. Founded in 1905 in the 1787 riding school of Belém Palace, it moved most of the collection in 2015 into a new building opposite, designed by Paulo Mendes da Rocha.

The Jerónimos Monastery in Belém was begun in 1502 under King Manuel I for the Order of Saint Jerome and built mainly by Diogo de Boitaca and João de Castilho in the Manueline style. Its church holds the tombs of Vasco da Gama, the poet Luís de Camões and Kings Manuel I and John III. With Belém Tower it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983.

The Monument of the Discoveries is a 56-metre monument on the Tagus riverfront in Belém, built in 1958–1960 after a design by Cottinelli Telmo, with sculptures by Leopoldo de Almeida. Shaped like the prow of a caravel, it carries 33 figures of the Age of Discovery led by Henry the Navigator. Inside are exhibition rooms and a lift to a rooftop viewpoint.

The Museum of Popular Art stands on the Belém riverside in a pavilion built for the 1940 Portuguese World Exhibition and opened as a museum in 1948. Its rooms, decorated by artists of the period, show Portuguese folk art region by region: ceramics, basketry, costume, musical instruments, farm tools and fishing gear from the Minho to the Algarve.

The MAC/CCB Museum of Contemporary Art occupies the exhibition building of the Centro Cultural de Belém, designed by Vittorio Gregotti and Manuel Salgado and built between 1989 and 1993. In 2023 it replaced the Berardo Collection Museum and now shows 20th- and 21st-century art from the Berardo, Ellipse and Teixeira de Freitas collections, along with temporary exhibitions.

The Benfica Museum – Cosme Damião is the museum of the Lisbon sports club S.L. Benfica, opened in 2013 beside the Estádio da Luz and named after one of the club's founders of 1904. Its three floors show trophies, shirts, documents and film in 29 themed areas, ending in a geodesic dome; guided tours of the stadium start from the same complex.

Belém Tower is a fortified tower on the bank of the Tagus, designed by Francisco de Arruda for King Manuel I and completed in 1519 to guard the approach to Lisbon. Built of lioz limestone in the Manueline style, it has a bastion and a four-storey tower, and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site together with the Jerónimos Monastery since 1983.

The Lisbon Oceanarium was built for Expo '98 in what is now Parque das Nações, on a pier in the Olivais dock, to a design by Peter Chermayeff. Its central tank of about five million litres is surrounded by four habitats – North Atlantic, Antarctic, Pacific kelp forest and Indian Ocean reef – with sharks, rays, penguins and sea otters.

Telecabine Lisboa is a gondola lift built for the Expo '98 world exhibition in what is now Parque das Nações. Its 44 cabins run on seven pylons along the Tagus riverfront between a station near the Oceanário and one near the Vasco da Gama Tower, with views over the estuary and the Vasco da Gama Bridge.

The Palace of Queluz is an 18th-century royal palace in Queluz, in the municipality of Sintra. Work began in 1747 under the architect Mateus Vicente de Oliveira as a summer residence for the future King Peter III, in a mix of Baroque, Rococo and Neoclassical styles. Visitors see the state rooms, the tiled canal and the formal gardens with fountains and statues.