Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga

Portugal’s finest art museum holds the country’s greatest single painting: the enigmatic São Vicente Panels, a group portrait of a vanished court that has fascinated historians for a century. Around it, the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga gathers the treasures of five centuries of Portuguese and European art, in a palace looking over the Tagus.

Treasures at Janelas Verdes

Created in 1884 and installed in the old palace of the Counts of Alvor, at Janelas Verdes, the MNAA holds some forty thousand pieces — painting, sculpture, gold work and decorative arts — including the largest number of works classified as national treasures. Alongside the panels of Nuno Gonçalves hang Bosch’s Temptations of Saint Anthony, Dürer’s Saint Jerome, the Custódia de Belém of 1506 and the Namban screens that record the first Portuguese in Japan. The museum has been closed for major renewal works since late 2025 and is set to reopen on 21 November 2026, with the restored panels back on show. Nearby, the city’s other great collections continue: the Musée du carreau national in Xabregas and the Chiado contemporary museum.

What to see

• The São Vicente Panels of Nuno Gonçalves
• Bosch, Dürer, Memling, Raphael and Cranach
• The Custódia de Belém and the Namban screens
• The museum garden over the river and harbour
• The chapel of the old Albertas convent

Practical information

The museum stands at Rua das Janelas Verdes, in Santos, a short tram ride from the centre of Lisbon. Note the works timetable: closed since September 2025 for the PRR renovation, reopening announced for 21 November 2026 — confirm the opening date before travelling.

Image credit: Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga by Daniel VILLAFRUELA — Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.