National Carriage Museum
One of the richest in Europe collections of royal carriages XVII-XIX centuries. Gilded, decorated with silver, precious stones, silk and velvet, luxurious and exquisite. And they are all on the move today! The carriages presented in the exhibition were made in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Austria and France. The museum collection has both quite ordinary crews and quite rare ones. All exhibits are housed in the buildings of the former arena, built in 1726 by Italian architect Giacomo Adzolini. In 1905, the arena was converted into a museum, this was the wish of Donna Amalia, wife of King Carlos I. The first exhibit in the museum was a very modest wooden carriage, decorated with red leather. Philip II of Spain himself once rode in this carriage.
The exhibition also includes ornate carriages upholstered in red velvet and gilded, plush upholstered inside, decorated with carved figures and royal coats of arms, and outside the carriages are decorated with statues as tall as a man. The weight of each of them is about five tons. The second gallery features two-wheeled cabriolets, a lando carriage with a folding top, as well as pony-drawn chaises designed for young members of the royal homeland. There is even a working crew of the XIX century. , in which carriages carried passengers across Lisbon and a very modest phaeton with a black folding top, dating from the time of the Marquis of Pombal.
