The National Coach Museum ( pt, Museu Nacional dos Coches) is located on the Afonso de Albuquerque Square in the Belém district of Lisbon in Portugal. The museum has one of the finest collections of historical

carriages A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping a ...

in the world and is one of the most visited museums of the city.

History

The museum was formerly housed in the Royal Riding Hall of

Belém Belém (; Portuguese for Bethlehem; initially called Nossa Senhora de Belém do Grão-Pará, in English Our Lady of Bethlehem of Great Pará) often called Belém of Pará, is a Brazilian city, capital and largest city of the state of Pará in ...

, the former home of the

Portuguese School of Equestrian Art The Escola Portuguesa de Arte Equestre (''Portuguese School of Equestrian Art'') is a Portuguese institution dedicated to the preservation of the equestrian arts, in the Portuguese tradition. It is one of the "Big Four", the most prestigious clas ...

, known as the ''Picadeiro Real''. The ''Picadeiro Real'' is part of the larger Belém Palace complex, formerly a Royal Palace, which is now the official residence of the President of Portugal. The Horse Riding Area was built after 1787, following the Neoclassical design of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional It ...

architect ''Giacomo Azzolini''. Several Portuguese artists decorated the interior of the building with paintings and tile ('' azulejo'') panels. The inner arena is 50 m long and 17 m wide, and was used for training horses and for horse riding exhibitions and games, which could be watched from its

balconies A balcony (from it, balcone, "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. Types The traditional Maltese balcony is ...

by the Portuguese royal family. Since 2015, the bulk of the collection has been housed in a new museum situated close to the ''Picadeiro Real'', but the original museum area can still be visited and contains six coaches and other exhibits. The original museum was created in 1905 by Queen Amélia to house an extensive collection of carriages belonging to the Portuguese royal family and nobility. The collection gives a full picture of the development of carriages from the late 16th through the 19th centuries, with carriages made in Italy, Portugal, France, Spain,

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous c ...

and England. Among its rarest items is a late 16th/early 17th-century travelling coach used by King Philip II of Portugal (Philip III of Spain) to come from Spain to Portugal in 1619. There are also several

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including th ...

18th century carriages decorated with paintings and exuberant gilt woodwork, the most impressive of these being a ceremonial coach given by Pope Clement XI to King John V in 1715, and the three coaches of the Portuguese ambassador to Pope Clement XI, built in Rome in 1716. A section of the museum is also located in the

Ducal Palace of Vila Viçosa The Ducal Palace of Vila Viçosa ( pt, Paço Ducal de Vila Viçosa) is a royal palace in Portugal, located in the civil parish of Nossa Senhora da Conceição, in the municipality of Vila Viçosa, in the Alentejo, situated about 150 km (93 ...

, in Southern Portugal.

References

External links

* *The National Coach Museum o
Google Arts & Culture

"Paulo Mendes da Rocha / Museu Nacional dos Coches"
by Gonçalo M. Tavares, Ana Vaz Milheiro and João Carmo Simões, Lisbon: Monade, 2015.
National Coach Museum official website
{{coord, 38, 41, 52, N, 9, 11, 59, W, type:landmark_region:PT, display=title Museums in Lisbon Carriage museums Belém (Lisbon) History museums in Portugal Transport museums in Portugal 1905 establishments in Portugal Museums established in 1905