Museu das Comunicações

The Museu das Comunicações (Communications Museum) answers a question most children never think to ask: how did people send messages before phones? It walks through five centuries, from royal couriers on horseback to the fibre-optic cables on the seabed that carry almost all of today’s internet traffic. The museum calls itself a living science and technology workshop, and the best bits are the ones children can try: tapping out a telegraph message, taking a selfie “on the bottom of the sea”, following a treasure-hunt map round the rooms.

It is run by the Fundação Portuguesa das Comunicações, set up in 1997 by the post office (CTT), the telecoms regulator (ANACOM) and Portugal Telecom (now Altice), and it sits in a bright yellow 1940s building by the river near Cais do Sodré. The building started life as a factory and later housed Lisbon’s telex exchange, the machines that sent typed messages down telephone lines, which suits a museum about sending messages.

The Submarine Cables room, opened in 2020, is the one to head for with older children. It tells the 150-year story of the cables laid across the ocean floor to link continents, in three generations: telegraph cables, coaxial cables and the fibre-optic cables that now carry almost all global multimedia traffic. The exhibition also explains why Portugal’s position on the map made it important in the cable story.

Children can try sending a telegraph message and look at a hologram made with one of the old cables. Interactive screens show how cables are loaded onto ships, laid on the seabed, anchored and repaired. At the end you choose an underwater scene and take a selfie on the bottom of the sea. The foundation’s website reports that the exhibition won a best exhibition prize from APOM, the Portuguese museums association.

The Post Rider exhibition recreates a staging post from the late 1700s and early 1800s, with life-size figures of postal workers and passengers frozen mid-journey. This was how mail and people moved between Lisbon and Coimbra from 1798, and later between Lisbon and Porto. In 1859 that journey took 34 hours and needed 23 changes of horse. Numbers like that are a good way to show a child why the railway, and then the telegraph, changed everything.

The long-term exhibition, Overcoming Distance (Vencer a Distância), runs in date order from the 16th century, when the postal service became a public service, to telephone networks, the internet and mobile phones. Its collections go back to Portugal’s first Postal Museum, opened in 1877. Along the way you pass optical telegraphs and signalling lamps, electric telegraphs using Morse code, telex and fax machines, manual switchboards, rotary and push-button phones, pagers and early mobiles. Parents may find the phones and computers of their own childhood in the glass cases. A philately section shows famous Portuguese stamps and some of the original drawings they were printed from.

Two free temporary exhibitions were on when checked. Comunicar é Natural (until 30 November 2026) looks at how plants have carried messages, from papyrus and oak-gall ink to the rubber that insulated early electric cables and wooden telegraph poles, and it ends in an immersive “forest” room. Destino Camões (until 31 December 2026) tells the life of the poet Luís de Camões through stamps.

The Communications Maze is a self-guided family trail for children aged 6 to 12. Each family gets a map and questions whose answers are hidden in the exhibition rooms, meeting inventors such as Samuel Morse and Thomas Edison on the way. It takes about an hour and runs on Saturdays from 14:00 to 17:00, free with a museum ticket and with no need to register. In October 2026 it runs as the Mapa das Comunicações treasure hunt on every Saturday afternoon; the museum also offers it on weekdays for the ticket price plus €1 per child.

For babies up to 36 months, the monthly Código Bebé sessions use stories, textures and music; the 3 October 2026 session, about animals talking on the phone, cost €4 and needed booking. Older children can join one-off workshops such as a Saturday session on undersea cables (€2 in October 2026, maximum 25 places). On World Post Day (1 and 9 October in 2026) visitors can go in free, write a postcard and have it posted with a stamp the museum provides.

Birthday parties run on Saturday afternoons with a workshop led by the education team: €150 for up to 15 children, then €10 for each extra child, up to 30. Adults at the party get in free. The rules do not say parents can leave, so plan to stay.

Tickets are €5 standard, €2.50 reduced (including over-65s) and free for children up to 5, when checked in September 2026. You do not need to book an ordinary visit. The museum does not run guided tours for individual visitors; groups can arrange a self-guided visit by appointment through museu@fpc.pt or 21 393 5000.

The museum opens Monday to Friday 10:00 to 18:00 and on Saturday afternoons 14:00 to 18:00. It is closed on Sundays and public holidays, and on Saturdays in August. That weekday bias suits home-educating families; working parents have Saturday afternoon.

On the first Wednesday of each month (15:00 to 17:00), the foundation opens its reserve stores at Calçada da Boa-Hora 12 for guided visits at €5 a head, for groups of 10 to 25. It is a behind-the-scenes look at postal and telecoms objects that are not on display, and better suited to older children and teenagers.

The cafeteria was closed when checked, so eat before or after. The riverside at Cais do Sodré has plenty of options, including the Time Out Market and Monte Mar. The museum is well served by trains, trams, buses and the metro, so there is no need to drive; if you do, the nearest listed car park is at Largo Vitorino Damásio.

The website does not describe lifts or step-free access, so phone ahead if you need them. Some rooms are about reading and looking, so under-fives will get most out of the telegraph, the phones and the baby sessions. Allow about an hour and a half.

The Museu da Marioneta, the puppet museum, is nearby in Madragoa. Along the river towards Belém, the Museu da Carris has old trams and buses, and the Museu do Dinheiro in the Baixa, which is free, is a natural pair for a day about how the modern world works.

Is the Museu das Comunicações good for children?

Yes, especially from about six. The undersea cables room is interactive, the stagecoach scenes are life size, and the Saturday family trail turns the whole museum into a treasure hunt.

Is the Museu das Comunicações open on Sundays?

No. It opens Monday to Friday from 10:00 to 18:00 and on Saturday afternoons, and it is closed on Sundays, public holidays and Saturdays in August.

How much are tickets for children?

Children up to 5 go free. The standard ticket is €5 and the reduced ticket €2.50, when checked in September 2026. The 2026 temporary exhibitions are free.

Is there a café?

The cafeteria was closed when checked in September 2026. There are many places to eat around Cais do Sodré.

Do you need to book?

Not for a normal visit or the Saturday family trail. Baby sessions, workshops, birthday parties and reserve-store visits need booking.