Museu da Ciência da Universidade de Coimbra

The Museu da Ciência da Universidade de Coimbra (University of Coimbra Science Museum) sits in the Laboratorio Chimico, the chemistry laboratory the university built in the 1770s during the Marquis of Pombal’s reforms, so students could learn chemistry by doing experiments. The university calls it the most important neoclassical building in Portugal. It became a museum in 2006, and in 2008 won the Micheletti Prize for Europe’s best new museum of science, technology and industry.

During restoration, archaeologists found it had been built over a 17th-century Jesuit dining hall, with windows, a pulpit and kitchen foundations still in place. It’s a compact, quieter museum, and you can’t buy a ticket for it on its own: it comes bundled with the university’s other sights (see tickets below).

The main exhibition, Segredos da Luz e da Matéria (Secrets of Light and Matter), is built around objects from the university’s collections and experiments children can try themselves. It runs from 18th-century experimental science through light, sunlight, light and vision, colour and pigments, to the Solar System. Children can repeat Newton’s trick of splitting white light into a rainbow, then find out how the eye and brain turn light into what we see.

The idea it builds towards is spectroscopy. Shine light through a gas and a set of dark lines appears in the spectrum, a different pattern for every element. The museum compares these lines to the barcodes on shopping. That trick lets scientists work out what the Sun is made of, or the air on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, which is mostly nitrogen and methane. A replica of the Cassini-Huygens probe, the NASA and ESA mission that landed on Titan, is on display.

The same building holds Visto de Coimbra, a smaller exhibition about the Jesuits who once ran the college next door. Its name comes from a drawing of the Moon made in Coimbra in 1626 by the Jesuit Cristoforo Borri. The museum says it was the first scientific astronomy illustration made in Portugal, and only the second ever published after Galileo’s.

Opened in 2022, the Gabinete de Curiosidades (Cabinet of Curiosities) gathers about 4,000 specimens and objects from the university’s collections, built up over 250 years. There are no labels. Shifting lights guide you round a room full of what the university calls “bizarre”, unusual and beautiful things, meant to recreate how people looked at collections before museums explained everything. It suits children who like odd things and making up their own explanations. It’s dim, which may bother a child who dislikes the dark, and the university warns it can occasionally close without notice.

Included in the same tickets, the Museu Académico (Academic Museum) tells the story of student life in Coimbra, a university whose story goes back to 1290. In the middle of the first room stands a replica of the university’s clock tower with one of its real bells inside, and the visit ends in a small room about Coimbra’s student music. The Mineral Gallery is also on the university’s list of open spaces.

The museum’s second building, the Colégio de Jesus opposite, is home to the Physics Cabinet (18th and 19th-century instruments in their original cupboards, named a European historic physics site in 2016) and the Natural History Gallery, with collections brought back from Africa, Goa and Brazil on 19th-century expeditions. The museum’s own website says the Colégio de Jesus is closed for restoration until further notice, and the university lists the Natural History Gallery as closed. None of the current tickets include these rooms, so don’t promise stuffed animals.

All tickets are University of Coimbra combined tickets, sold online or at the ticket kiosk in front of the Faculty of Medicine (daily 09:00 to 19:00). Each ticket is valid for two days, with one entry per space. When checked in September 2026:

• University + Science Museum: €12.50 adults, €6 ages 6 to 17, €10.50 over-65s, under-6s free. Includes St Michael’s Chapel and the Royal Palace; about two and a half hours.
• Joanina Library + University + Science Museum: €16.50 adults, €8 ages 6 to 17, €14.50 over-65s, under-6s free. Entry to the Baroque library is at a fixed time, in groups of up to 50 every 20 minutes, through the old academic prison.
• Science Museum + UC Exploratório: €16 adults, €11 ages 3 to 17, €14 over-65s, under-3s free. Adds the science centre across the river, with its play space and one 360-degree film. About three hours in total.

With children under six, the university tickets are good value, since they go free.

On the first Sunday of each month, UC Exploratório brings its Explorastórias sessions to the museum: a children’s book is read in one of the historic rooms, then families explore the science hidden in it. They’re for children aged 3 to 9 with their parents, at 11:00 and 16:00, with up to 25 people per session. Ask UC Exploratório (239 703 897) about booking.

The museum suits children from about seven who will read a little and try the experiments. Toddlers will get less from the exhibits, though under-sixes go free, so there’s little to lose. It’s in the Alta, Coimbra’s steep old upper town, where streets are cobbled and hilly, so a sling or carrier is easier than a buggy. The museum and the other university sights are open every day from 10:00 to 19:00, but check the closure dates: the whole university route shuts on 4 October 2026, and academic ceremonies sometimes close individual rooms.

The Joanina Library and the Paço das Escolas (the old royal palace) are a short walk away on the same ticket. Down by the river, UC Exploratório makes a good hands-on second half of a science day, and Portugal dos Pequenitos and the Parque Verde do Mondego are across the bridge. The Roman town of Conímbriga is a short drive south, near Condeixa.

Can you visit the Science Museum on its own?

No. It’s only sold as part of a University of Coimbra combined ticket, either with the old university buildings, the Joanina Library or UC Exploratório.

Is it free for children?

Under-sixes go free on the university tickets (under-threes on the ticket with UC Exploratório). Ages 6 to 17 paid €6 or €8 in September 2026, depending on the ticket.

How long do you need?

About an hour for the Laboratorio Chimico and the Cabinet of Curiosities. The full University + Science Museum route averages two and a half hours.

Is the natural history gallery open?

No. It’s in the Colégio de Jesus, which was closed for restoration when we checked.

Is it good for toddlers?

Not especially. Very young children may enjoy the colours in the light exhibition and the Cabinet of Curiosities, but most of it is aimed at school-age children.