The Naval Museum – Museu de Marinha

The Naval Museum, founded by King Luís on June 22nd, 1863 is at present situated next to the Monastery of Jerónimos in Lisbon (Belem). It was housed for a time in the former Naval School and the Palace of the Count of Farrobo before making the symbolic transfer to Belém, for it was from Belém, not far from the chapel of Our Lady of Belém, that Vasco da Gama set sail for India, so when the museum was moved to this site an "old dream of the Navy" was fulfilled. Starting with some models of Portuguese Royal Navy vessels, items began to be collected for the Naval Museum during the 18th century. Today, over a century later, the collection has grown to over 16.000 items, not counting the photographic and other archives that contain plans and drawings of ships. There is an extensive collection of craft, as well as naval artillery and nautical instruments showing important events in the history of the Portuguese navy, not only in the golden age of Portuguese navigation, but also in the centuries which followed. This traditional collection-based museum provides very little interpretative and contextual support, however, thereby undermining its considerable  value when considered from the pan-national point of view of the global patrimony of humanity: the Portuguese navy succeeded, where Zheng He did not, in opening up the sea passages of the world to trade.