The National Coach Museum is not just about the carriages and coaches. Occasionally they will put up really interesting temporary exhibitions to put variety to the exhibitions. This is a special collaboration with Norberto Nunes to showcase the kings and queens of Portugal in a different perspective.
Table of Content
Painting and Sculpture of Queen Amélia
Norberto Nunes | 23 May 2023 | Painting and Sculpture
At the entrance of the museum is a brand new sculpture of Queen Amélia of Orleans and Bragança who, in 1905, founded the first Coach Museum in the world.
The three prominent kings, Alfonso I (who founded the first dynasty in 1143), Manuel I (who discovered Brazil and sponsored the journeys of Vasco da Gama), and João IV (who took back Portugal from the Spanish kings Filipe I, II and III) were also presented as sculptures.
Okay, And That’s How It All Started…
The First Dynasty – Dinastia Afonsina | Afonsine Dynasty (1143 – 1383)
D. Afonso I, who wanted to be king even before becoming one, has (as they say) fourteen children – the kingdom needs to be peopled, you know. But one of them, D. Sancho I, who did not want to be left behind, has nineteen and thus gets the nickname of “The Populator”. He, with the delusion of grandeur, conquers the Algarve and then goes away for well – deserved holidays, having been replaced by D. Afonso II, better known as ‘The Fat”, who ends up by being deposed by the Pope for other reasons.
D. Sancho II comes next, makes peace with his aunts but things aren’t fine and dandy with the church and ends up dying away from his Lusitanian’s lands. Then, Afonso III, his second son, who, among other things, is responsible for moving the court from Coimbra to Lisbon, marries to Beatriz de Castela and from this liaison D. Dinis is born, the one responsible for the Pinhal de Leiria (Leiria’s fine pine wood), who marries a lady who was genuinely a saint. As he only had a male son, that was the one who got the crown – by that time that was how things meant to be. And, of course, he named him D. Afonso (not to cause too many changes). No, his name was not D. Afonso-not-to-cause-too-many-changes.
It was D. Afonso IV who, according to idle gossip, did not do much; nevertheless, he gave the world D. Pedro I, a stubborn man who did not give up his most intimate desire to marry, in second nuptials, with a certain D. Inês, causing tremendous conflicts. Then comes D. Fernando I, D. Pedro’s first marriage son and brother of great infants, who ends up by marrying to D. Leonor Teles, “A Aleivosa”, meaning of little confidence. As he does not have any male children, that meant the end of the First Dynasty, giving rise to much confusion and two years of interregnum. A kind of a restless break.
Second Dynasty – Dinastia De Avis | Avis Dynasty (1385 – 1580)
Fighting like cat and dog, follows the Second Dynasty with D. João I from the House of Avis who, among other brave events, is the responsible for the Battle of Aljubarrota, for the beginning of the Portuguese overseas expansion and the «Ínclita Geração» (Illustrious Generation). But it is D. Duarte who has the task of continuing his father’s great ideas and D. Afonso V, the grandson, also known as “The African”, gets the mission to add to the frontiers of the kingdom some cities of that continent.
D. João II “The Perfect Prince” who was king twice, to whom the Treaty of Tortesilhas is due comes next. Then D. Manuel I, a smart and distinguished king who succeeds his cousin discovers the maritime route to India. This one has several children, but it is D. João III, the oldest one, whose birth was attended by the great poet-playwright Gil Vicente, that initiates the effective colonization of Brazil.
On his deathbed, he leaves the kingdom to his grandson, D. Sebastião, the one who the Portuguese still believe will return one day from the Battle of Alcácer Quibir. But once he has never come back, (so far!) the crown skips to his great-uncle, D. Henrique, who in addition to being a cardinal also becomes the king. For this same reason he never marries and thus the crown goes to a nephew, D. António, best known as Prior of Crato. He performs his role so well or so badly and so little, that even today he is questioned if he was truly a king.
The Spanish Kings – Dinastia Filipina | Philippine Dynasty (1581 – 1640)
Then came the Filipes: the I; the II and the III. Can you imagine: three! They came from Spain, claiming they were just passing by, but they stayed and stayed and stayed… And to Spain they went back: after 60 years guests outstay their welcome. [Wonder what happened to Filipe II’s picture?]
The Final Dynasty – DInastia De Bragança | Brigantine Dynasty (1640 – 1810)
D. João IV comes next in order to organize the kingdom, now in the hands of the House of Braganza, and restores the independence. He leaves the leadership to his son D. Afonso VI, weaker than his brother D. Pedro II who not only steals his brother’s wife as well as the kingdom itself, having D. Afonso VI no choice than abdicating.
Follows D. João V, “The Magnanimous”, considered by many a kind of the Portuguese “Roi Soleil” who starts this exceptional and unique collection of richly adorned royal vehicles that one can still see here in this Coach Museum. His son, D. José, is already king by the terrible earthquake of 1755. That’s when he decides to start living in what is known as the Royal Tent, because he was fed up of stone and lime. We owe him, among other things, the rule of the Marquis of Pombal, the Process of Távoras’s family and D. Maria I, his daughter who one believes having been both devout and crazy. Having fired the Prime Minister, founded Casa Pia and fled to Brazil, she had little time for more.
Her son D. João VI, who had also fled with her, avoiding a face-to-face meeting with the Junot, gives an heir, D. Pedro IV, the first Emperor of Brazil who, due to some of his behaviours, is prevented from ruling Portugal for a period of time. The crown is then delivered to D. Miguel, who is at odds with his brother, urging the first civil war.
Nevertheless it was useless, as he is obliged to abdicate in favour of D. Maria II, to whom he had been engaged and who, because of all of this, ends up reigning twice. To D. Pedro V, her son, we owe the hospital of Estefania and to his premature death the reign of D. Luis, his brother, to whom we also owe many other charitable works.
His son, D. Carlos turns out to be the first king being assassinated and D. Manuel II, who narrowly escapes from that same outrage, still has the chance to reign. But at the request of several families, he ends up in exile in London as a result of a republican uprising and being Portugal such a small country, soon one realised that… two is too much.
And So That Was How Everything Came To An End.
The monarchy ended, the kings were over, as well as a story that had begun almost 800 years before. All this happened because D. Manuel II (who was D. Carlos’s son, who in turn was D. Luis’s son, D. Pedro V’s brother, both sons of D. Maria II, who in turn was D. Miguel’s first-degree niece and D. Pedro IV’s daughter, both D. João VI’s sons, who was in turn D. Maria’s son, but the I (not the II), and who was D. José’s daughter, D. João V’s granddaughter and D. Pedro Il’s great-granddaughter, and D. Afonso VI’s great-niece-granddaughter who, by the way, is certain and well-known as one of D. João IV’s sons, a monarch who was still at least related to the Filipes of Spain – I, II and III, – who were simultaneously distant cousins of D. António, D. Henrique’s nephew and D. Sebastião’s cousin, and this one in turn one of D. João III’s grandsons who, according to history, was D. Manuel I’s son, who was D. João II ‘s cousin, being thus D. Afonso V’s son and D. Duarte’s grandson, who in turn was D. João I’s son, and this same brother, on his father’s side, that of D. Fernando’s, who had inherited the crown from D. Pedro I, a legitimate son and successor of D. Afonso IV and D. Dinis’s grandson, whose father was Afonso III, a successor of his brother D. Sancho II, because both were D. Afonso II’s children, and D. Sancho I’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the first of all, D. Afonso Henriques) had to abdicate.
About Norberto Nunes
Portuguese illustrator/animator Norberto Nunes is a native of Lisbon and attended Escola António Arroio and Escola de Belas Artes (Lisbon Fine Art schools), learning to paint with Master Roberto Araújo. The years he passed as film director have a deep influence in his paintings, giving it an almost cinematic identity in the way he works light and shade, where shapes seem to indulge in a perpetual movement. From 2001 on Norberto spends most of his time in Rio de Janeiro, where he starts a series of paintings based in the poetry of Fernando Pessoa. Recently he is developing a similar concept based in the stories of Hans Christian Andersen.
About National Coach Museum
The National Coach Museum houses one of the most important collections of horse drawn carriages in the world, making this a highly recommended place to visit.
On May 23, 1905, by the initiative of Queen Amelia of Orleães and Bragança, wife of King Carlos I, the Royal Coach Museum was inaugurated in the Old Riding Arena.
When the Republic was established in 1910, the Museum was renamed National Coach Museum (Museu Nacional dos Coches).
This museum houses an important horse-drawn carriage collection of vehicles are from the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth century.
The museum was formerly housed in the Royal Riding Hall of Belém, the former home of the Portuguese School of Equestrian Art, known as the Picadeiro Real. The Picadeiro Real is part of the larger Belém Palace complex, formerly a Royal Palace, which is now the official residence of the President of Portugal.
In the Royal Riding Arena it is still possible to see some vehicles, oil paintings of the monarchs of the Bragança dynasty and a set of saddles and harnesses related to the Equestrian Art.
The new museum building was inaugurated on May 23, 2015. The horse-drawn vehicles belonging to royal palaces of the Crown, the Church and various noble houses are exhibited in chronological order revealing the different models used, their characteristics and evolution from the 16th century until the end of the 19th century.
Opening Hours:
Tuesday through Sunday: 10am to 6pm. Mondays: closed.
Closed: January 1st, May 1st, Easter Sunday, June 13th, 24th and 25th December.
Visited Aug 2023
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