When we first heard that there was a museum of coaches in Lisbon, we were perplexed. First, it had to be explained (to John at least) that we were talking about transportation compartments pulled by horses, not athletic team leaders. Then, it had to be explained that they weren’t kidding and there actually is such a thing as a coach museum. And then we had to learn that it is, in fact, one of the more impressive buildings in the entire city, dedicated entirely to a coach museum. (Well, and miscellaneous sundries.) And finally, when we first encountered the National Coach Museum, we learned the hard way that it is closed on Mondays. Whoops.
As relayed in our first sojourn to Lisbon, we stumbled upon the building with more than a little mix of surprise and suspicion. It is a huge building, designed by Brazilian architect – and Pritzker Prize winner – Paulo Mendes da Rocha. We don’t claim any special architectural expertise, but clearly this was a big gun that they brought out for their… coach museum. Learning this also blew a hole in my ginned-up theory that the museum was originally something else, and was repurposed so as not to have a huge derelict on the waterfront. Nope! The government raised funds, worked through committees, the whole 9 yards… for the coach museum.
So, ok, I’m leaning pretty heavily into the “coach museum can ya believe it?? herp derp” attitude, but here’s the thing: it was actually pretty cool! The coach sets date back several hundred years and are kept in fantastic condition. (There has to be extensive restoration to look this good, but I’m caring less and less about that as the years go by.) There are coaches that were crafted by the Portuguese, but some of the finest examples are French carriages that arrived here as the transportation for various princesses that were marrying into the Portuguese royal family. Still, Paris to Lisbon in horse-drawn carriage? Wooooof.
After walking the wildly impressive first hall, the second hall with its nearly uniform small, black carriages as engines were visible on the horizon just didn’t hold the same pizzazz. Car aficionados would probably get a kick out of it as a walk through of the early evolutionary stages of automobiles, but otherwise it was kind of a dud. Still, the first main hall with it’s twenty-ish examples from several centuries was, and I still can’t quite believe I’m saying this, entirely worth the visit. It’s great.
