National Coach Museum

The Museu Nacional dos Coches is the Lisbon museum that wins over sceptics. It holds an extraordinary collection of horse-drawn vehicles used by the Portuguese royal family, the nobility and the Church from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, and it is one of the most visited museums in the country. The museum was founded in 1905 by Queen Amélie, wife of King Carlos I, who saw that the royal carriages were becoming historic objects and had them displayed in the old Royal Riding School in Belém, a beautiful eighteenth-century hall with a painted ceiling. In 2015 the main collection moved into a striking new building across the road, designed by the Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha, with a vast, plain exhibition hall that lets the carriages shine. And shine they do. The stars are the Baroque ceremonial coaches made for embassies and royal occasions in the eighteenth century, when Portugal was rich on Brazilian gold. The most famous were built in Rome for the Portuguese ambassador's procession to Pope Clement XI in 1716: huge, gilded vehicles covered in carved allegorical figures, among them one celebrating the oceans and the Portuguese voyages. Around them are travelling coaches, sedan chairs, small carriages built for royal children, berlins, landaus, and later vehicles from the nineteenth century, along with harnesses, liveries and saddles. Among the more sombre exhibits is the landau associated with the assassination of King Carlos and his heir in 1908. Closed on Mondays.

Why go: the coaches are works of art as much as transport. Their carving, painting and gilding brought together the best sculptors, painters and craftsmen of their day, and the processional coaches were designed as moving propaganda, statements of a kingdom's wealth and reach paraded through the streets of Rome, Paris or London. Seen up close, the allegorical figures on the backs of the great embassy coaches, with their tritons, globes and personifications of the continents, tell the same story of maritime empire that Jerónimos and the Padrão tell in stone. The collection also shows how ordinary royal life worked, from cramped travelling coaches for long journeys to tiny, elegant carriages built for princes.

Working the visit: allow about an hour and a quarter. Start with the large ceremonial coaches, then walk slowly through the chronology; the labels are informative, and audio-guide options are available through resellers. The modern building is spacious and step-free, so it works well with buggies and wheelchairs, and it is a good refuge in rain or summer heat. The standalone entry ticket is modestly priced and is also covered by the Lisboa Card. Ask at the museum about the historic Riding School across the street, which has been used to show part of the collection under its painted ceiling.

Fitting it in: the museum is on Avenida da Índia in Belém, near the Belém train station and the tram 15 stops, and only a few minutes' walk from Pastéis de Belém and Jerónimos. It fits neatly into a Belém day, particularly in the afternoon after the monastery and tower, when you want something indoors. Families with children who like horses, princesses or knights usually enjoy it more than they expect.