Lisbon, Oct. 1, 2025 (Lusa) - The new facilities of the National Music Museum (MNM) in Mafra will be inaugurated on 22 November, more than two years after they were closed in Lisbon, the Museus e Monumentos de Portugal (MMP) announced on Wednesday.
On the occasion of World Music Day, the MMP said in a statement that the inauguration programme, scheduled for a Saturday, "includes various concerts and extends throughout the weekend and the following days".
"Between 22 November and the end of the month, admission will be free, although subject to capacity, and ticket reservations are recommended through the Museus e Monumentos de Portugal Ticket Office," added the MMP, which indicated that the full programme will be available on the museum's website.
The MMP has said that the programme will feature "diverse musical moments", giving as examples the performances of composer and percussionist Iúri Oliveira, the Orquestra de Foles, the Gamelan Orchestra of NOVA FSCH and the Indonesian Embassy, and the LVSITANVS carillon, "the largest and heaviest itinerant carillon in the world".
"The MNM will have an immersive multimedia hall, whose opening programme will include the premiere of a work commissioned from illustrator Bernardo Carvalho and musician Ricardo Jacinto, and “Harpa de ervas”, commissioned from composer Fátima Fonte and director Adriana Romero and developed from interviews with various personalities such as Ana Salazar, Afonso Reis Cabral, Álvaro Siza Vieira, Capicua, Herman José, Rui Paula, Simone de Oliveira and Vasco Palmeirim," revealed the public company.
According to the MMP, the new tour of the MNM "includes multisensory, tactile and olfactory experiences aimed at all audiences, who will also be able to play more than twenty different musical instruments and instrument models".
In addition, "new solutions" have been prepared in terms of accessibility: blind audiences will have "tactile flooring, braille and audio description", while deaf people will have video guides in Portuguese Sign Language and audiences on the "autistic spectrum or more generally with some kind of hypersensitivity" will be able to take advantage of specific times for silent visits and reduced visual stimuli.
Housed since 1994 in Lisbon's Alto dos Moinhos metro station, the MNM is relocating permanently to the Palácio Nacional de Mafra after two years of renovations, which resulted in a delay of around a year for the museum's reopening and an investment of close to €7 million.
"These new facilities have made it possible to rehabilitate 8,000m2 of the Royal Building of Mafra, including reserve spaces and common spaces such as the ticket office, shop, and cafeteria, as well as doubling the number of specimens on display, which now total 500 pieces in a 2000m2 visit route," recalled the MMP.
The MNM was born out of the efforts of Alfredo Keil (1850-1907) and the collector Michel'angelo Lambertini (1862-1920) to create a museum next to the National Conservatory in Lisbon.
After Alfredo Keil's death, Lambertini obtained "authorisation from the government to start collecting musical instruments scattered around public institutions such as palaces, convents, and museums" and was allocated two rooms in the Palácio das Necessidades, as recalled in an exhibition on the past and future of the MNM that was on show last year at the National Library in Lisbon.
Lambertini was dismissed in 1913, after two years in charge, and lamenting "the carelessness, insensitivity and lack of attention of the Portuguese government concerning the collecting of musical instruments".
A year later, he began a private collection, and in 1915, he succeeded in establishing the Instrumental Museum of the Conservatoire, an educational institution then headed by Francisco Bahia. Lambertini resigned due to a lack of conditions, and the Lisbon Instrumental Museum (MIL) was created, financed by millionaire António Carvalho Monteiro.
"Advised by Lambertini, “Monteiro dos Milhões” - as he was also known - bought the musicologist's own collection, Keil's and some instruments from António Lamas' collection and set up the MIL in the Quintela Palace, a property he owned in Rua do Alecrim. If the millionaire provided the safekeeping of the instruments, Lambertini—the mastermind of the initiative—kept a large, specialised library at home. Unfortunately, Carvalho Monteiro and Lambertini died unexpectedly in 1920. Leaving no plans for the future of the museum, the MIL was abandoned during the 1920s," the text about the exhibition read.
Years later, the National Conservatoire, under the direction of Vianna da Motta, acquired the MIL's collection, as well as "the deposit of some instruments from the royal collections", opening the Conservatoire's Instrumental Museum to the public in 1946 with two galleries and seven rooms.
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