Fado Museum

Fado is the soundtrack of Lisbon: a song of saudade, the untranslatable Portuguese word for longing and absence, sung by a single voice to the bright, bell-like Portuguese guitar and the classical guitar. It was born in the poorer quarters of nineteenth-century Lisbon, in taverns, docks and back streets, became the voice of the city in the twentieth century, and was inscribed by UNESCO on the list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2011. The Museu do Fado, in a pink former pumping station on the Largo do Chafariz de Dentro at the bottom of Alfama, tells that story with intelligence and feeling. The permanent exhibition traces fado from its origins through the spread of the music via theatre, radio, cinema and television, and into the age of international stars. It explores the evolution of the Portuguese guitar, with a fine collection of instruments; the world of the fado houses; the singers and composers, with biographies and recordings of hundreds of performers; and the relationship between fado and Portuguese art, including José Malhoa's famous 1910 painting O Fado. Throughout, interactive stations let you listen to recordings and watch archive footage, and an audio guide carries you through at your own pace. The great figure is Amália Rodrigues, who carried fado to the world in the mid-twentieth century, but the museum is equally good on the living scene. It is open Tuesday to Sunday, closed on Mondays and a few holidays, and tickets are inexpensive. It takes about an hour and is the perfect prelude to an evening of live fado.

Why visit a museum for music you can hear live a few streets away? Because fado is easier to love when you know what you are listening for. In the museum you learn the difference between Lisbon fado and the more academic Coimbra tradition, how a fado house works and why the room falls silent for each song, and why the Portuguese guitar, with its pear-shaped body and twelve steel strings, sounds the way it does. The listening stations are the heart of the visit: take time with the recordings, from crackly early discs to Amália's classics and the newer generation of singers who have revived and reinvented the genre since the 1990s.

The museum also runs programmes beyond the galleries, from guided walks through the fado neighbourhoods of Alfama, Castelo and Mouraria to concerts and a school for the Portuguese guitar, and a well-stocked shop sells recordings and books if you want to take the music home. Check its programme when you plan your trip. There is a small café, and the Largo do Chafariz de Dentro outside, with its old fountain, is one of the most atmospheric squares in Alfama.

To round off the day, book a table at a fado house. Expect dinner and several sets across the evening, a set price or minimum spend, and strict silence during the songs. Some of the most memorable nights are in the smallest places, where the singers might be waiters, neighbours or regulars and the guitarists play for love; others are formal restaurants where well-known professionals perform. Either way, arrive with an open heart and let the music do the rest. If you are in Lisbon around the Festas in June, fado spills into the streets too.