Museu dos Coches (National Coach Museum)

The Museu Nacional dos Coches (National Coach Museum) is in the Belém district of Lisbon, Portugal, and holds one of the most important collections of historic carriages in the world. It was founded in 1905 by Queen Amélie of Orléans, wife of King Carlos I, and was long housed in the former Royal Riding School of the Belém Palace, a building from the 1720s with a painted ceiling. In 2015 the museum moved to a new purpose-built wing across the road, designed by the Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha, who won the Pritzker Prize in 2006, with Portuguese partners. The new building is a long, raised concrete volume with large glazed areas, and the old riding school remains open for part of the collection. The exhibits date mainly from the 16th to the 19th centuries and include state coaches, berlins, litters, sedan chairs, and children's carriages. Among them are the coach used by Philip II of Spain when he entered Portugal in 1619, and three Baroque coaches made in Rome for the Marquis of Fontes's embassy to Pope Clement XI in 1716, with carved gilded figures that are among the finest examples of Portuguese Baroque art. Displays are organised thematically and chronologically, with explanation of coachbuilding, royal ceremony, and transport, and the carriages are shown at close range in an open hall. Many vehicles were restored by the museum's conservation workshop, and the collection is well preserved, with ongoing treatment of leather, gilding and textiles. The museum gives a view of court ritual, craftsmanship and the changing form of transport from the Renaissance to the age of the automobile.