Lisbon – Day 5 – Maritime and Contemporary Art Museum in Belém
Tuesday, 09-Jun-2026
Tags: Travel
Larry’s second work day.
Eileen decided to head out to Belém, but skipping the Jerónimos Monastery and Belém tower as we visited them on our previous trip.
Eileen experimented with taking the 127 bus out of Praça Marquês de Pombal to the monastery. The trip was fine but didn’t really pass much of interest.
The bus stopped at the Monastery.
A shot of the Monument of the Discoveries from the Monastery.
Eileen walked to the western wing of the monastery that housed the Maritime Museum. The museum covered the history from early explorations through modern times, with excellent displays (Portuguese and English descriptions) of model ships, navigational equipment, canons and other weapons, uniforms, etc.
On one of the models was of the carrack S. Gabriel. Vasco da Gama left from the Tagus river bound for India on 8 July 1497, commanding a fleet of four ships: two carracks, the flagship "S. Gabriel" and the "S. Rafael"; a caravel (a small, fast, and maneuverable ship), and a small support ship, meant to be dismantled for spare parts. Over ten months and many difficulties later, the Portuguese fleet finally reached its destination on 20 May 1498. It had completed the first maritime connection to India and established the route that would be sailed by the ships that every year, for about three centuries, would make the long India run.
Model of S. Gabriel.
There was also a section on cod fishing ships, a section with reconstructed cabins of the boat of the last king and queen of Portugal. At the end is a large two story room of barges, sailboats, and even some small planes.
Customs Barge (late 18th century).
Neblina. From a Swedish desigh, built in 1947.
Royal Brigantine. This vessel was built by order of Queen Maria I, for her son, the future King João Vl, in 1784. It has 40 oars, operated by 78 oarsmen. Used by the royal family for transportation and several foreign rulers visiting Portugal. It sailed for the last time in 1957, during the visit of Queen Elizabeth Il of England.
The next stop was across the street to the Cultural Center of Belém (CCB), an enormous multi function modern building that houses the Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture Centre. Eileen just managed to get through one floor of modern art, comprising 19 rooms, with, to name a few names most people know, Picasso, Modigliani, Miró, Rothko, Calder, Magritte, Warhol, Lichtenstein. The exhibit was called “An Atlantic Drift — The Arts of the 20th Century from the Berardo Collection.”
Joan Miró 1925
Next stop was the underground tunnel to the Monument of the Discoveries.
The Belém tower, about .6 miles west was not visited in this trip. Here’s a zoom shot of the tower from the Monument.
It was.6 miles back east to get to the Belém train depot, taking the overhead bridge to up, over, and down to the tracks sandwiched between two roads. Care must be taken to be in the correct side as the train direction is “British”. The last stop was Cais de Soudre, the Green line one stop to baixa, Blue line back to the hotel.
Mplify reception was on the 12th and 13th floors (bar and pool levels), and later a return to banze for of couple of tapas plates to finish out our dinner.
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Larry and Eileen Samberg
