The Maritime Museum’s collection holds over 18.000 objects, gathered since as early as the eighteenth century. Of these, around 2.500 exhibits were selected to compose the Museum’s permanent exhibition, portraying the different aspects of Portugal’s maritime past and the different activities related to the sea present in the country.
As such, the main focus of the permanent exhibition is connected with the Portuguese Discoveries, the height of Portuguese navigation. The advances in shipbuilding during this period are given special importance, through the display of several ship models, as well as the nautical instruments that made Portugal’s exploratory voyages possible, as well as other objects pertaining to life at sea.
The evolution of the Merchant Marine is also present in the Museum’s permanent exhibition, with several models of ships belonging to Portuguese shipping companies from the end of the nineteenth century onward.
The Portuguese Navy is well represented in the Maritime Museum, from nineteenth century mixed-propulsion ships to modern-day frigates. The permanent exhibition also encompasses objects from the Portuguese Naval Aviation, most importantly the “Santa Cruz”, the hydroplane used by Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral to complete the first aerial crossing of the South Atlantic, in 1922.
It is also important to note the cod fishing industry, the traditional vessels used on coastal sailing and fishing and several royal and leisure vessels, examples of the several themes present in the permanent exhibition of the Maritime Museum.
ROOM MAP