Sintra Natural History Museum

The Sintra Natural History Museum is located in the heart of Sintra's Old Town Historic Centre, on Rua do Paço, in a 19th century building dating back to 1893. 

The museum is open to the public, and houses a long term collection created by collector Miguel Barbosa and his wife, Fernanda Barbosa, who over nearly 50 years collected a unique selection of thousands of fossils of incalculable cultural and scientific value.

The exhibition space is brought to life using modern furniture and equipment, as well as resorting to the use of new technologies.

The display begins with the formation of the Early Earth and the changes it underwent over millions of years, over different Geological Periods spanning from the Pre-Cambrian to the Quaternary, revealing the entire evolution of the life through the Municipal Palaeontology, Mineralogy, Malacology, and Petrography collections, originating from the most diverse parts of the world.

This is the fourth Natural History Museum created in the Greater Lisbon Region, the most modern and universal, with items from all continents on the planet.

Among the over 10 000 fossils in the museum, we highlight the Collection of Trilobites, and some rare and very well preserved Dinosaur specimens. The great beauty of the minerals, with pieces still encased in rock, cut and polished, attract national and foreign visitors alike.

In the Malacology Collection, we highlight the Bivalves and some Gastropods with different origins. Finally, the Petrography Collection not only includes the main types of rock in Portugal, but of equal importance, rare meteorites, the famous Nantan Meteorite (China) among them, whose impact is referenced in documents dating back as early as the 16th century.

However, the museum's star in the sky, its main attraction, is a "Flying Reptile", the Blaesodactylus sp, from Chapada do Araripe (Ceará, Brazil), which has already been studied by the Department of Geology at the State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe, in Germany, and not only identified as a unique species, but also as the only complete specimen found to date in the entire world.
 

Opening hours

Tuesday to Friday: 10:00 am to 6:00 pm

Saturday and Sunday: 12:00 to 18:00

Closed on Monday

Closed on holidays:

• January 1st;
• Easter Sunday;
• May 01;
• December 24th, 25th and 31st.

Admission Free

Features and services
Handicap accessible 
Guided tours upon booking
Shop
Panoramic view 
Toilets 
Air conditioning 
Security/Surveillance 
Entertainment activities: Workshops for schools.