Museums and Palaces

The Oriente Museum is located in a 1940s building in the Alcântara Dock, with a privileged location next to the River Tagus. It aims to chart the historic relationship between Asia and Portugal – the first country to reach distant Oriental ports.

The Museum is structured around two major permanent exhibitions. The 1st floor houses an exhibition on the “Portuguese Presence in Asia”, constituted by artistic objects and documents collected over many years by the Oriente Foundation. The panoply of valuable objects include 17th and 18th-century Chinese and Japanese screens, Namban works of art, a porcelain collection bearing the coat of arms of the Companhia das Índias and a collection dedicated to the cultures of the peoples of Timor.

The 2nd floor houses the exhibition, “Gods of Asia” planned on the basis of the Kwok On collection - one of the most important of its kind in Europe, constituted by over 13,000 items. As visitors wander through the exhibition, they will find examples from the performing arts, mythologies and popular Asian religions, together with puppets, masks, painting, ritual objects, lanterns, dragons, games and statues.

The Oriente Museum also has a temporary exhibitions area and a multiuse space that will host a diversified range of cultural activities, including music, dance, and theatre performances, films and puppet shows.