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Alfama · Museums

The Museu do Fado is a municipal museum in Alfama, Lisbon, at Largo do Chafariz de Dentro 1, 1100-139 Lisboa. It is devoted to fado, the urban song tradition that UNESCO recognised as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on 27 November 2011. The museum opened on 25 September 1998 and is run by EGEAC, the Lisbon municipal company that rebranded as Lisboa Cultura in 2024. The building opened in 1868 as the Estação Elevatória de Águas de Alfama, a coal-fired steam pumping station designed by engineers Joaquim Pires de Sousa Gomes and Paiva Couceiro to push water uphill into Lisbon's distribution network. Between 1974 and 1990 it served as a work centre for the Portuguese Communist Party. The restoration and extension were designed by architects João and José Daniel Santa-Rita. Inside, the permanent exhibition is interactive and follows fado from its nineteenth-century origins in Lisbon to the present. It covers the Portuguese guitar, fado houses, and fado on stage, radio, film and television, along with hundreds of performers, and listening stations are placed throughout. Instruments, costumes, scores and trophies are displayed among paintings such as José Malhoa's O Fado, from 1910, which shows a guitarist and his listener in a humble Lisbon room and is on loan from the Museu de Lisboa. The museum also stages temporary exhibitions, including Variations to Carlos Paredes, listed for 7 Jun 2025 to 31 Oct, about the Portuguese guitar player Carlos Paredes (1925-2004). Other parts of the museum include a digital sound archive with recordings of fado going back to the early 20th century, a documentation centre, an auditorium, a gift shop and a school of Portuguese guitar. A workshop area, the Oficina da Guitarra, is in Largo das Alcaçarias, 200 metres from the museum. The educational service offers guided visits and singing visits, and audio guides are available in Portuguese, English, French and Spanish, including a children's version. The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00, with last admission at 17:30, and closed on Mondays and on 1 January, 1 May, 24 December, 25 December and 31 December. Adult admission is €5, with EUR 2.50 for ages 13-25 and EUR 4 for seniors 65+. Children up to 12, Lisboa Card holders, and Lisbon residents on Sundays and holidays until 14:00 enter free. The museum is wheelchair accessible, and two manual wheelchairs are available on free loan. Santa Apolónia station, served by the Metro Blue line and CP trains, is a five-minute walk away.