Entrance to museums, monuments and palaces protected by the State will become free on Sundays and public holidays for citizens residing in Portugal from today, the day the new regulation comes into force.
The regulation also updates the entry fees for these spaces dependent on the Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage (DGPC), in accordance with the Government order published on August 4th in Diário da República.
In the document, the Government justified the update of the regulation in force since 2014 with the “growth of tourist activity, due to which the cultural offer has diversified in recent years, either through the introduction of the online sales channel, with the acquisition, in 2021, of the new ticketing system”.
Until today, entrances to Museums, Monuments and Palaces under DGPC were free on Sundays and holidays only until 2:00 pm for all visitors.
Free access to museums, monuments and palaces in general (and not just on Sundays and public holidays) also covers children and young people up to the age of 12, unemployed visitors residing in the European Union, researchers, museology and/or heritage professionals , conservators and restorers, as long as they are performing their duties, teachers and students of any higher education level, including Senior Universities and professional training institutions accredited on study visits, and groups with proven economic need.
This free access – whose restructuring took into account “the basic principle of universal access to culture”, according to the Government order – continues to include, among others, former combatants, visitors with proven disability equal to or greater than 60%, professionals tourism or social communication, including new digital platforms, as long as they are accredited and performing their duties, visitors at corporate events or occasional situations.
As for discounts, 50% remains for visitors aged 65 or over, the same for young people between 13 and 24, and “families, as long as they are made up of at least two elements, one being one adult and one minor”, in addition to the protocols.
Among other changes, there is the creation of a specific price list for temporary exhibitions and the merger, into a single typology, of discounted Youth Card and Student Card tickets and Family and Large Family tickets, according to the order signed on July 27th by the Minister of Finance, Fernando Medina, and the Minister of Culture, Pedro Adão e Silva.
According to statistical data from the DGPC, in 2022, national museums, monuments and palaces had 3.3 million visitors, which represented a recovery of almost two million entries compared to losses during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the numbers fell short of the approximately four to five million reached before the pandemic, between 2017 and 2019.
Source: Lusa