The Pepper Palace In Lisbon Was A Downer But We Loved The Gardens

We set out on this rainy winter day to visit a museum inside the Pepper Palace but it turns out that the main attraction was their garden with odd and beautiful ceramic statues. We embraced the rain to present you beautiful pictures and a video of Pepper Palace Garden. This post first got published today on our Lisbon Travel Blog.

Occupying five separate sites spread across the city, the Museu de Lisboa is not the kind of museum where you’ll be able to see everything within a day. And you wouldn’t want to, if our experience at the museum’s primary collection in the Palácio Pimenta was any indication. Except for its garden, this was easily the worst museum we visited in Lisbon.

It bears mentioning that, during our visit, the Museum de Lisboa was undergoing renovation, and the entire ground floor was closed to visitors. Perhaps that section is endlessly fascinating, filled with delightful exhibits which are captivating to minds both young and old. But given what we saw on the second floor, I sincerely doubt it.

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The collection was nothing more than old sketches of how Lisbon once looked, along with a few small statues and pieces of furniture. That was it. The sketches weren’t even particularly good, and there wasn’t much information to go along with them. We went from “intrigued” to “utterly bored” within a matter of seconds.

We were especially disappointed by the “Pepper Palace” itself; its name would seem to practically guarantee a unique experience. By all rights, this 18th century residence built for the mistress of the king should be amazing. But anything special about it has been stripped out, leaving a bunch of bare, boring rooms.

At least the garden was nice, (protip: you don’t even have to pay entrance to the museum to see it). With legions of live peacocks and strange, larger-than-life ceramic animals clinging to the shrubs and trees, this was by far the highlight of the palace.

he entire reason we had chosen to visit a museum was that this was yet another of Lisbon’s rainy winter days. So, of course, this turned out to be the one museum whose outdoor section is the only worthwhile part. Oh well… not every experience can turn out to be a winner.

Location on our Lisbon Map

Our favorite photos of the Pepper Palace Garden

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