Free admission on International Museum Day and European night

The initiatives scheduled for the European Night of Museums, celebrated on Saturday, and for the International Museum Day, on the 18th, include, among other initiatives, 'peddy papers' and historical recreations, announced the Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage ( DGPC).

The program also includes Chinese shadow theatre, visits to museum reserves, various 'workshops' and debates, with free entry to the different institutions open on Museum Night, marked after regular hours, and on International Museum Day.

At the Museu Nacional dos Coches, a day full of activities includes, on Saturday, at 7.30 pm, a guided tour of the collections of the former Royal Riding School. Still in this museum, in Lisbon, on the 14th, between 10:00 am and 1:00 pm, a concentration of old cars is planned, in Praça do Museu, and, on the 18th, between 10:00 am and 6:00 pm, the 'peddy paper' " Portrait Hunt". On the 20th, between 10:00 am and 12:30 pm, there will be a technical visit "Conversations around the construction of a Coach, appreciated in natural scale 1/1 and reduced 1/10".

Another Lisbon museum, the Music Museum, at the Alto dos Moinhos subway station, on Saturday, at 8.30 pm, the show "The Italian Opera in the Chamber Hall" takes place, by Yuri Marchese, on classical guitar, and Taíssa Poliakova Marchese , on piano. On the 18th, at 6 pm, the concert "The mythological harpsichord", by Anne Marie Dragosits, takes place at the 1782 Taskin harpsichord, classified as a "national treasure".

International Museum Day is an initiative of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), which has been held since 1977.
This initiative and the Night of Museums "are promoted in Portugal by the DGPC, through an invitation to museum spaces [integrated in] the Portuguese Museum Network to carry out activities aimed at the public, with a generalized offer that can range from concerts, to visits guided and staged, theater and dance shows, gatherings and debates".

"Museums, Sustainability and Well-Being" was the theme chosen by ICOM to celebrate this year's Museum Day, given that "they are spaces that transform society par excellence, with the potential to ensure health and well-being at all ages, above all promoting mental health and combating social isolation".
Among other activities, Palácio da Ajuda, former royal residence, on Saturday, between 7 pm and 8 pm, proposes the historical recreation "D. Luís: a musical visit to Palácio da Ajuda". On the day of museums in the palace, in the morning, a "Fencing Encounter in O Meu Palácio!" is proposed.

The DGPC wants these two dates to motivate "awareness, debate, knowledge and education forums on matters related to the fight against climate change and for prevention measures, action and protection of ecosystems and biodiversity". Next Saturday, at 6 pm, the Museu Nacional do Traje proposes a guided tour under the motto "Reserves: what our wardrobes hide..." and, between 6 pm and 8.30 pm, a 'workshop' "on dyeing plants Monteiro-Mor park, attached to the palace where the museum is located".

The different activities of the Portuguese Museum Network, for the European Night and the International Museum Day, on the 13th and 18th of May respectively, are on the online platform International Museum Day | DIM (patrimoniocultural.pt).
In the European Night, next Saturday, the museums, monuments and palaces protected by the DGPC, will have free entry after closing time.

However, the monasteries of Batalha, Alcobaça and Jerónimos, in Lisbon, will be closed on this occasion, as well as the national museums of Archeology and Contemporary Art, in the capital, the Monographic Museum of Conimbriga, in Condeixa-a-Velha (Coimbra), the National Museum of Resistance and Freedom, in Peniche (Leiria), and also the National Pantheon and the Belém Tower, in Lisbon. On International Museum Day, the National Museum of Resistance and Freedom will also be closed.

Entrances are free, on the 18th, in all museums, monuments and national palaces, protected by the DGPC. In the rest, it will depend on the different institutions.