Museum of Geography Society of Lisbon

The Museum of Geography Society of Lisbon (in portuguese, Museu da Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa) was inaugurated in 1884. Nine years before, the Sociedade Portuguesa de Geografia was founded by Luciana Cordeiro.

While visiting the museum, one will find a huge collection allusive to the Portuguese presence in the ex-colonies. There are various rooms, each related to a specific theme, like the India Room, Algarve Room, Patterns Room and Portugal Room.

Motive of curiosity to a good part of the public, the Patterns Room exhibits the famous stone patterns, present in history books, that were place by the Portuguese explorers along the African coast while Portugal was claiming the new territories. On the other hand, the Portugal Room (the largest of them all) exhibits an extensive part of the collection belonging to the museum.

In the facilities of the Sociedade Portuguesa de Geografia¹, there is a library that is considered by many the Holy Grail of the History of the Portuguese Discoveries and Expansion. The library has books, manuscripts, magazines and other documents, making the impressive number of 230.000 literary units at its keep.

Translation references

1. Portuguese Society of Geography