Machado de Castro National Museum

The Machado de Castro National Museum (Portuguese: Museu Nacional de Machado de Castro) is an art museum in Coimbra, Portugal, named after the renowned Portuguese sculptor Joaquim Machado de Castro. It first opened in 1913 and its latest renovation (2004–2012), which included the addition of a new building, was awarded the Piranesi/Prix de Rome Prize 2014.

The museum is housed in the former Bishop's Palace. This palace was built from the Middle Ages onwards roughly on the site where the Roman forum of Aeminium (Coimbra's Roman name) once stood. The remains of this distant past, the Cryptoporticus, can be visited on the lower floors of the museum.

The bulk of the museum's collection is made up of items from churches and religious institutions in the area surrounding Coimbra. The collections of sculpture (the most extensive of all the national museums of Portugal), painting, precious metals, ceramics and textiles are especially noteworthy.

Text adapted from “Machado de Castro National Museum” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Machado de Castro National Museum ranks #3,793 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #44 of the 200 mapped in Portugal. Wikidata records about 37,000 visitors in 2022. 4 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Leiria, 61 km away. See how Portugal compares in the castle statistics.

View on the interactive castle map →

Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗