When a huge earthquake and tsunami devastated much of Lisbon in 1755, the Carmelite convent and church at the top of one of its highest hills were among the buildings destroyed. Almost 300 years later, the church is almost the only physical evidence of the disaster.
Today it’s a fascinating museum, showing off archaeological and artistic pieces from nearly every period of Portugal’s history, some displayed in the ruined and unroofed nave.
The adjacent convent, which is now a Republican Guards museum and has been used by the military for centuries, has a bit of recent history. On April 25, 1974, Marcelo Caetano, successor to the dictator Salazar, made his last stand in the Carmo barracks, and eventually surrendered there to the ‘Carnation Revolution.’
More are in the surviving apse chapels and other rooms. A wonderful reminder of how inexact a science archaeology can be: the object just above is labeled as “Horned Idol or Spit Support.” You can worship it, or use it to roast your chicken…
There are numbers of tombs on display, some as old as the 13th century when construction of the church and convent started, but mostly they were brought here from elsewhere after the museum began in the 1860s. The ornate one at the top is of 18th century Queen Ana Maria, originally from Austria.
Not all the exhibits are home-grown. The Association of Portuguese Archaeologists, whose centuries-old library is housed here, also brought their finds, including an Egyptian mummy and pre-and post-Columbian artifacts from Central America.
This is Portugal, so it’s no surprise to find a sizable exhibit of tiles in a number of different techniques and styles, along with these depictions of stations of the cross that were originally part of 15th-century church decorations made in Nottingham, England.
Conservators and their students at work on small pieces in one of the rooms.
