The Carmo Archaeological Museum, installed in the ruins of the old Carmo Church, was founded in 1864, a year after the foundation of the Portuguese Archaeologists Association.
RUINS AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM OF CARMO
The construction of the Carmo church dates back to 1389, driven by the desire and religious devotion of its founder, the Constable of the Kingdom, D. Nuno Álvares Pereira. Built on the hill bordering the castle of S. Jorge, for its grandeur and monumentality, it rivaled the Cathedral of Lisbon and the Convent of S. Francisco of the same city. From an early age this religious space was considered emblematic of the Lisbon city and its own national identity, due to the fact that it is associated with the name of one of the most famous Portuguese heroes of the Middle Ages. Having chosen the Carmo church for his grave, Nuno Álvares Pereira marked, in a decisive way, the entire history of the Gothic monument.
The church and convent have received several additions and changes over time, adapting to new architectural and decorative tastes and styles, becoming one of the richest and most powerful buildings in Lisbon. In 1755, the earthquake, which violently shook the city, caused serious damage to the building, aggravated by the subsequent fire that almost completely destroyed its contents. In the year 1756, its reconstruction began, already in neo-Gothic style, interrupted definitively in 1834, due to the extinction of Religious Orders in Portugal. The pillars and arches of the naves date from this period of reconstruction, which are a true testimony of experimental neo-Gothic architecture, of a scenic nature. In the mid-19th century, the romantic taste for ruins and ancient medieval monuments prevailed, it was decided not to continue the reconstruction of the building, leaving the body of the naves of the church in the open. In this way, a magical ruin scenario was created, which was so appealing to 19th-century aesthetics and which still enchants our contemporaries today. The Carmo ruins thus became a memorial for the 1755 earthquake.
The Carmo Archaeological Museum, installed here, was founded in 1864 by the first president of the Association of Portuguese Archeologists, Joaquim Possidónio Narciso da Silva (1806-1896). It was the first museum of Art and Archeology in the country, and was born from the objectives of safeguarding the national heritage that was being dilapidated and deteriorating, as a result of the extinction of Religious Orders and the countless damages inflicted during the French Invasions and the Liberal Wars.
In the first years of its existence, it brought together a collection consisting of numerous fragments of architecture and sculpture, as well as funerary monuments of great sculptural relief, tile panels, weapons stones, and many other objects of historical-artistic and archaeological interest. At the end of the 19th century and in the third quarter of the 20th century, important collections of art and archeology from different origins entered the Museum, including the collection of Roman epigraphy, the collection of pre-Columbian ceramics and mummies and the original collection of excavation of the Castro de Vila Nova de S. Pedro, in Azambuja (Chalcolithic c.3500 BC), currently counting about a thousand artefacts on permanent display.
Over more than a century of existence and services provided to the scientific community and the general public, the Museu Arqueólogo do Carmo, remains enveloped in its “romantic aura”, offering a space of aesthetic enjoyment, culture and contemplation, in full downtown Lisbon.
