The MNAA-Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga houses the most complete public collection in the country. Painting, sculpture, decorative arts - Portuguese, European and of the Expansion -, from the Middle Ages to the 19th century, including the largest number of works classified as “national treasures”.

Among them, we highlight the Panels of São Vicente, by Nuno Gonçalves, a masterpiece of European painting from the 15th century; the Custody of Belém, by Gil Vicente, commissioned by King Manuel I and dated from 1506; the Namban Screens from end of the 16th century, where the presence of the Portuguese in Japan is recorded; the Temptation of St. Anthony, by Bosch, a prime example of Flemish painting from the beginning of the 16th century; St. Jerome in His Study, by Dürer, an innovative representation of the saint; and important works Memling, Rafael, Cranach or Piero della Francesca.

Installed in the Palácio dos Condes de Alvor, in Santos, the MNAA and its garden (with restaurant and terrace) offer an exceptional view over the Tagus River and the port of Lisbon. Inaugurated on June 12, 1884, the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga fulfills an old aspiration that arose after the abolition of religious orders, in 1834, which was to give a place to the works of art that at that time passed into the possession of the State.

Renovated in 1911 and acquiring the name it currently has, the museum assumed the general contours that it still maintains today.