Museu da Marioneta

Museu da Marioneta is dedicated to the interpretation and dissemination of the history of puppets and puppet theatres, and features various types of puppets and the different approaches they allow, focusing on Portuguese puppets.

Its estate depicts the various theatrical forms deriving from ancient traditions or from modern artistic pursuits, exploring new forms, new materials and new techniques.

Apart from one of the most important and complete collections of Portuguese traditional puppets, we also have in deposit an outstanding and wide collection of African and Southeast Asian puppets and masks belonging to the collector Francisco Capelo, with some exceptional quality oriental masks and puppets from Java, Bali, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, India, Vietnam and China, preserving however the core of the most significant European and Brazilian puppet families.

As far as Portuguese puppets are concerned, we would like to point out some of its most important moments: from a rural theatre with clear popular features from travelling fairs and pavilions, to a urban theatre with some aesthetical and educational purposes and to a modern and intellectual, such as Marionetas de S. Lourenço that gave new life to a theatre and opera Portuguese tradition from the 17th century, magnificently depicted by the work of António José da Silva.