Museums can be hit or miss for us as some of them are boring and others are quite fascinating. The Maritime Museum in the neighborhood of Belém in Lisbon is different than a lot of museums partially due to having several models of ships from Portugal’s Age of Discovery. The exploits of those explorers who left from the shores of Lisbon to discover various trade routes around the world is an important part of Portugal’s history and the Maritime Museum pays homage to that time. It was also the very first thing that we saw during our time in Lisbon, providing context to many other things that we learned during our visit.

There are many exhibits throughout the museum, including maps and globes depicting the understanding of the world as it evolved with exploration, models of ships that would have sailed from Portugal, and statues of famous explorers like Vasco da Gama. There are also many interesting paintings depicting the lives of the sailors at sea and the hardships that they faced. It is clear that to be a seafaring explorer during those times certainly required a lot of bravery as there could be a tragedy at any given time.

The Maritime Museum is located in what seems to have been a church at one time and the exhibits are both inside and outside of the building. Tickets are 6.50 euros for adults and 3.25 euros for children. How long it takes to visit the museum depends on how long you spend reading the placards that provide information on each exhibit or spending looking at the details of the artwork and displays. We spent about an hour and a half walking through and enjoying everything that we saw, but we didn’t stop to read all of the information that is available for the visitors.