National Archaeology Museum

The National Archaeology Museum (in portuguese, Museu Nacional de Arqueologia) exists since 1893, time of its foundation by Dr. Leite de Vasconcelos. In the beginning the collections offered by the museum belonged to its founder and Phillipes Martins Estácio da Veiga, a prominent person in the national archaeological community and author of the Carta Arqueológica do Algarve, published in 1878.

Idealized by Leite de Vasconcelos as a Museum of the Portuguese Man, the museum is found properly located at the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos since 1903, a worthy home to in.

The crown jewelries of the National Archaeology Museum are the two permanent exhibitions that focus on the Tesouros da Arqueologia Portuguesa and Antiguidades Egípcias.

The exhibition Tesouros da Arqueologia Portuguesa is open since the November 28^th, 1980, and shows pieces of ancient jewelry that invoke the evolution of this art along time in national territory. For its part, the exhibition Antiguidades Egípcias shows nearly 300 pieces in permanence of a total collection up to more than 500 pieces in the possession of the museum and is opened to the public since the December 20^th of 1993. Here, may be revisited 5.000 years of history of an unparalleled society in the world.

Still part of the museum's collection, are numerous archaeological artifacts whose origin traces back to the Paleolithic period and goes until the Middle Age.