National Museum of Ancient Art

Neither the exact date of construction of the museum, nor the architect of the building are known. It is only known that it was built in the 16th century in the immediate vicinity of the church institution, bearing the name of St. Albert Vercelli, the patron saint of the Carmelite order. It was the first Carmelite monastery in Portugal. What is left of it, namely the Albert Chapel, today is part of the museum. She is in the dungeon of the west wing; it is a luxuriously decorated sacred room with elegant terracotta crèches made by Machado de Castro, a Portuguese Baroque architect; the walls are lined with colored tiles , ubiquitous in the country. All this is a reconstruction: the western wing appeared only in 1930; the chapel at that time represented an empty room in a state of complete decline and under the threat of final destruction. Already in 1834 the monastery was empty, like many other church institutions in Portugal.

As a result of the civil war, a huge number of monasteries and churches were liquidated at that time. The state should take care of the works of art there. Such a fund was initially created in the monastery of St. Francis, which became the residence of the first Academy of Fine Arts. Later, in 1869, the first exposition was held.

The decision to transfer the meeting to the Pombal Palace was made in 1882. Since then, it has been constantly replenished, primarily due to wealthy donors, one of which was Queen Carlotta Zhuakina, and the other was the Armenian oil tycoon Galust Gulbenkyan , who did a lot for the cultural life of Portugal. Soon the chosen building was too small for the collection. It was decided that part of the meeting should be moved to a new building, and since no suitable buildings were found, they decided to build one, which was done by 1994.

Today, the museum stores 2,200 paintings from the fourteenth century to the year 1820. All funds are conditionally divided into seven sections: painting, sculpture, drawing and graphics, gold and silver products, ceramics, textiles, furniture. In addition to these collections, there are collections of art from Africa and the Far East - evidence of past colonial rule. The collection of paintings has several exquisite exhibits: the image of St. Jerome, made by Albrecht Dürer, which the artist personally sold to an interested person from Portugal. There are works by Lucas Cranach the Elder, Holbein, Velazquez. The museum has one of the most famous paintings by Jerome Bosch - “The Temptation of St. Anthony”; it is a three-part altar depicting a pious Egyptian hermit, besieged by crowds of demons and greedy monsters. Particular interest of the public, caused by patriotic feelings, is felt in the section of Portuguese painting, covering almost four centuries of its development. The vast majority are religious subjects and portraits. The culmination of this section is a significant monument of Portuguese painting of the XV century "Altar of St. Vincent" by artist Nuno Gonçalves, consisting of six panels. He wrote on them about sixty figures of gloomy saints, and under them - Henry the Navigator, a pale man with a mustache in a black headdress with prayerfully folded hands.

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  The Temptation of St. Anthony .
  Jerome Bosch

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  The Temptation of St. Anthony
  (external flaps).

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  "Saint Jerome."
  Albrecht Durer

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  "Altar of St. Vincent."
  Nuno Goncalves

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  "The Virgin and Child".
  Hans Memling

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• National Museum of Ancient Art on the site of the City Hall of Lisbon