The Museu de Marinha lies in the Praça do Império, at Belém and occupies the north and west wings of the Jerónimos monastery.
Strictly speaking its name translates as the Navy Museum but its contents do include the history of commercial vessels as well.
The Museu de Marinha was founded by King Luís on 22 July,1863 and was originally housed in the Naval School in Lisbon. A major fire destroyed most of its collection of ship models in 1916.
From 1948-62 the Museum was housed at Laranjeiras, in north west Lisbon, in the palace of the Count of Farrobo. On 15 August 1962 the collections moved to their present location, to which has been added a modern pavilion filled with the museum's larger exhibits. Between this extension and the main collections, under a covered walkway, lies the Calouste Gulbenkian planetarium, which is also open to the public.
