National Coach Museum

Museu Nacional dos Coches

Created through the efforts of Queen Amélia of Orleans and Bragança, wife of King Carlos I, the Royal Coach Museum, as it was then named, was inaugurated on May 23, 1905.

Queen Amélia, a lady of great sophistication, was aware of the cultural value of the Royal House’s ceremonial vehicles. With the support of Monsignor Joaquim Boto, Canon of the Patriarchate of Lisbon, and of the King’s Council and his Head Equerry, Cavalry Lieutenant Colonel Alfredo Albuquerque, she proposed bringing them together, preserving them and showing them to the public, as took place for the first time in Paris in 1900 at the Universal Exhibition.

The site chosen for the museum was the Royal Riding Arena in Belém where the queen brought together the old aristocratic vehicles of the Portuguese Royal House along with their respective accessories. Up till this time, this heritage was scattered among different storage areas and coach houses of the royal palaces.

In the original collection were 29 vehicles, dress uniforms, harnesses and cavalry accessories used by the Royal Family. After the establishment of the Republic in 1910, the Museum was renamed the National Coach Museum and its collection was increased with other vehicles belonging to the Crown, the Patriarchate of Lisbon and some aristocratic houses.

Today the museum has a collection that is considered unique in the world because of the artistic variety of the magnificent ceremonial vehicles from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, as well as the number of examples.

Exceptional among the vehicles on exhibit are Coaches, Berlins, Carriages, Chaises, Cabriolets, Litters, Sedan Chairs and Children’s Carts making up an interesting collection that allows the visitor to understand the technical and artistic evolution of the means of transport used by the European courts until the appearance of the automobile.

Completing the collection is a group of Cavalry and Team Harnesses, Saddles, Dress Uniforms, Armament and 18th-century Processional Accessories. Highlights of this collection are a group of trumpets from the Royal Band, as well as a Portrait Gallery, oil on canvas, of the monarchs of the Bragança Dynasty.