After my Food Tour in Lisbon to discover Portuguese gastronomy and some great addresses, my little sightseeing tour of the city center, and Cascais, here is a more specific article to guide you in discovering the Belém district. This district of Lisbon, located 6 km west of the current city center, is bursting with activities and cultural sites, so I will try to give you some ideas for outings and visits there. Since I also stayed in this district during my trip to the city, I felt it was only natural to write an article just about Belém.
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Table of Contents
Where to stay in Lisbon? Hotel Jerónimos 8
This 4-star design hotel is ideally located between the Jerónimos Monastery and the Belém bakery.
The tip: it is the only place outside the Belém bakery where you can find the famous pastéis de Belém (which I talk about a little more at the bottom of this article and in my Lisbon Food Tour).
You can indeed enjoy them in the morning at the hotel breakfast. I don’t think I was reasonable at all, because I ended up eating them every morning… So be careful not to stay too long at this hotel, otherwise you risk gaining 10 kg very quickly…
Hotel Jerónimos 8 Rua dos Jeronimos, 8 / 1400-211 Lisboa
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Visiting the Museu Coleção Berardo
This Contemporary Art museum houses Portugal’s largest collection dedicated to 20th-century art. These works belonged to a private collector, José Berardo, who gathered this collection over the last two decades, and they have been visible in this museum since 2007. It notably features works by Calder, Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Joan Miro, Mondrian, Andy Warhol, Pierre Soulages, Jackson Pollock, Modigliani, Francis Bacon, Cindy Sherman…
Museu Coleção Berardo Praça do Império 1449-003 Lisboa In the Belém district Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10 AM to 7 PM The tip: admission to the museum is free for everyone
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Visiting the National Coach Museum
This magnificent museum, dedicated to antique carriages of the Portuguese monarchy, just reopened its doors last May in a design building perfectly adapted to the conservation and exhibition of its extraordinary collection. A must-visit if you are a fan of beautiful museums and beautiful objects!
National Coach Museum Praça Afonso de Albuquerque, 1300-004 Lisboa Pricing: €6 full price / free on the first Sunday of every month and for children under 12
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Visiting the Jerónimos Monastery
This magnificent Portuguese monastery, in the Manueline (late Gothic) style, is a monumental testimony to the wealth of Portuguese discoveries around the world. This monastery is definitely worth a look, and you should take at least 1 or 2 hours to visit the interior and discover its magnificent cloister, a real little architectural jewel with a beautiful collection of sculptures. In one of the cloister’s hallways, one can also find the tomb of Fernando Pessoa, a Portuguese writer and poet, since 1985.
Mosteiro dos Jerónimos
Praça do Império 1400-206 Lisboa
Pricing: €10 full price / free on the first Sunday of every month and for
children under 12
open every day from 10 AM to 6:30 PM from May to September and from 10 AM to 5:30 PM from October to
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The Belém Tower
This tower built in the 16th century on the banks of the Tagus was intended to guard the entrance to the port of Lisbon. You can also visit the interior if you wish, which I unfortunately did not have time to do… it will be for next time…
Belém Tower
open every day from 10 AM to 6:30 PM
Av. Brasília, 1400-038 Lisboa
pricing: €6 / free on the first Sunday of every month, for children under
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The famous Pastéis de Belém
In front of this old and very famous confectionery, hundreds of people wait every day to be able to taste its delicious little Portuguese custards, delicately dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon. The shop produces more than 22,000 every day, which will be entirely devoured during the day anyway (at the same time, these little treats don’t keep for more than 48 hours, what a good excuse!). The Portuguese always eat them in pairs. Why? Simply because when you’ve eaten one, you inevitably want to have a second one…
This address is indeed very popular with Lisboetas and tourists because it is only there that you will be able to feast on these specialties of Belém, the recipe for which is kept secret and known to only 6 people! I am extremely lucky, however, since I had the opportunity to go behind the scenes of the establishment to discover the manufacture (after the secret mixing of the ingredients for the dough of course) of the famous pastéis.
The other recipes that you will find in Portugal called Pastéis de Nata are actually copies of this original recipe inherited from the monks of the Jerónimos Monastery very close to the pastry shop (this explains that)… And honestly, I am not a great connoisseur in terms of pastéis, but I don’t think I’m overstating it by saying that those of Belém are actually inimitable… So if you are passing through Lisbon, this must be a mandatory stop on your trip!
Antiga Confeitaria de Belèm 84-92 rua de Belem – Lisbon Open Monday to Sunday from 8 AM to 11 PM and until midnight during the summer
I hope that with all this I will have made you want to discover this district of Lisbon, and if you too have your own favorite addresses and tips, do not hesitate to share them in the comments!
Find all my articles about my trip to Lisbon, Portugal in 2015 below:
⇒ All my articles on Lisbon
MY ARTICLES ON LISBON
⇒ My tips for discovering Lisbon
⇒ My guide to trendy Lisbon
⇒ My Food Tour in Lisbon and discovery of Portuguese gastronomy
⇒ My getaway to Cascais, a seaside resort near Lisbon
⇒ The Belém district in Lisbon
Photo credits: Mademoiselle Bon Plan Photos are not royalty-free, photographer's authorization required before any use
