DESCRIPTION:

 

The National Archaeology Museum was founded in 1893 as the “Portuguese Ethnographic Museum”, under the direction of Doctor José Leite de Vasconcelos.

It was originally located at the Lisbon Academy of Sciences.  

Since 1903 the museum has been housed at the former dormitory of the Monastery of Jerónimos, having opened to the public on 22 April 1906.

Construction of the Monastery began in 1501 having become the icon of Manueline art.

It was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1983.

 

The MNA accumulated remarkable holdings encompassing different themes: archaeology, ethnography, gold and silverware, coins and medals, pre-Latin and Latin epigraphy, sculpture, written documentation, mosaics and physical anthropology. Besides, it also boasts some remarkable archaeological and ethnographic “comparative collections” (Ancient Egypt and the Portuguese Royal House), along with different legacies and donations. However, the bulk of its holdings includes vast collections of Portuguese archaeology from the pre- and protohistoric, Roman, Arab and medieval periods.

 

Egyptian Antiquities:

The collection of Egyptian antiquities of the National Archaeological Museum (MNA), constituted by more than five hundred pieces (of which about three hundred are in permanent exhibition), is the largest in Portugal, and was put together throughout the 20th century. The exhibition covers more than five thousand years of History, from Prehistory (about 6000-3000 BC) up to the Coptic Period (395-642 AD) and in it the great periods of Egyptian civilisation are represented.

 

Treasures of Portuguese Archaeology:

The National Archaeological Museum possesses in its collections a remarkable number of ancient jewellery objects, coming from excavations or, more frequently, bought to goldsmiths or to the people who found them, which, by its representative quality, allow a general vision of the evolution of this art in the present Portuguese territory, from the beginnings of metallurgy until the Early Middle Ages.

 

*TICKETS PRICE:

Adult (>25 years) - 5 €

Senior (>65 years) - 2.5 €

Young Student (12 to 25 years) - 2.5 €

Child (<12 years) - free

 

*Prices are subject to alterations without prior notice, please confirm prices in the official website.