Encircled by a landscape of serene beauty, the museum is enveloped by gardens crafted by renowned landscape architects Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles and António Viana Barreto. Expansive lawns, tranquil pools, and a charming open-air amphitheater compose a setting where art and nature exist in perfect harmony.
The museum itself rises as a monumental parallelepiped, its façade a refined interplay of concrete and granite, achieving a subtle yet striking chromatic balance. Below, a dedicated Temporary Exhibitions Gallery, an intimate auditorium, an art library, and thoughtfully designed public spaces—including a museum shop and a café—extend the experience beyond the galleries.
A defining landmark in Portuguese museum architecture, the Gulbenkian Museum is structured around two verdant courtyards, where expansive windows dissolve the boundary between art and the natural world. A testament to the avant-garde architectural movements of the 1960s, the complex was honored with the Valmor Prize for Architecture in 1975 and later designated a National Monument in 2010.
Within its walls, the museum’s permanent exhibition unfolds in two distinct yet interwoven narratives. The first circuit invites visitors to explore the splendors of Eastern and Classical art, encompassing Egyptian, Greco-Roman, Mesopotamian, Eastern Islamic, Armenian, and Far Eastern masterpieces. The second circuit is a voyage through European artistic heritage, offering an exquisite selection of illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, painting, and decorative arts, with a particular emphasis on 18th-century French refinement and the unparalleled creations of René Lalique.