Museum of Costume and Theatre

Even further afield was the museum of costume, this needed us to go further on the Metro than we had been before and then a walk to find the museum.

This is housed in a country house which is worth the visit by itself, slightly run down and crumbly it is set in extensive and beautiful grounds, there is also another house in the grounds which houses the museum of theatre.

The day started slightly cloudy but soon cheered up.

It is possible to get very close to the exibits, and examine the intricate tailoring and stitching, its  also possible to cop a crafty feel............

The rooms of the former villa are very lovely and compliment the costumes perfectly. Information is provided in English and when we visited for a time we were definitely the only visitors as the attendant had to go in front of us and switch on the lights!

Lynne is very interested in clothes and seemed a bit disappointed that you cant actually try things on....

A nicely presented and interesting collection from 18th 19th and 20th centuries set in a stunning villa.
After looking at the collection we carried on to explore the grounds. Its possible to buy tickets for each museum or the grounds, we bought a combined ticket for all.

The grounds are extensive and there are several cafes to sit end enjoy a beverage, again as we were well off the tourist track and it was January it wasn't exactly crowded.

The gardens were established in the 19th century by a family whose home was the villa housing the clothes museum. some of the larger trees mainly exotics are very large indeed!

I may have said this before but Lisbon constantly amazes me because of the amount of green space in a capitol city.

The gardens have a slightly Italianate feel, you could be in Tuscany. We walked along the many paths and were helped by our map (you do need this) to find the other museum, Museum of Theatre.

This again is housed in an imposing villa and has recently undergone extensive renovation.

The staff could not have been more helpful, I don't know if we were unusual but an English speaking member of staff seemed to be attached to us and pointed out many exibits.

There was a guide tour going on but unfortunately it was in Portugese, so our English speaking helper was invaluable.

A lot of the exibits were costumes, which need no translation.

There are interesting displays and models of Lisbon Theatres.

Also a large collection of puppets.

Sancho Panza and Don Quixote.

Our assistant insisted we avail ourselves of the dressing up box, Lynne didn't take much persuading, she loves dressing up!

 We wandered back into the grounds which have large mobiles of exotic creatures along with a small maze.

I have no idea what they can be used for.

But they don't look totally out of place, we had a coffee in the small cafe in the beautiful pink villa.

By this time the sun had come out and the grounds were looking splendid.

We explored the many sculptures to be found in the gardens giving the Black Edge Beanie an airing!

A bit off the tourist trail but in our opinion a hidden gem.

We reluctantly left for the walk to the Metro station, the gardens alone are worth the visit, the different museums are each fascinating in their own way.