Museu do Dinheiro

The Museu do Dinheiro (Money Museum) belongs to the Banco de Portugal, the country’s central bank, and it is free. It opened in 2016 inside the former church of São Julião, just off the Baixa’s main streets, and it is built to be touched, pressed and played with rather than read. Nine themed rooms take you from the days before coins, when people swapped goods, through money around the world and in Portugal, to how coins and banknotes are made and what a central bank does.

For most children, three things make the visit. There is a gold bar weighing more than 12.6 kg, 99.9% pure, which you are allowed to touch; it sits behind the old door of the bank’s strongroom. There is an interactive station where you can “mint” a coin and “issue” a banknote with your own face on it. And inside the museum is a stretch of Lisbon’s medieval city wall from the reign of King Dinis, which is a listed national monument.

The museum picks out 15 pieces not to miss, and many work well with children:

• Hermes, the Greek god of trade, who invites you to try swapping goods the way people did before money.
• An interactive world map for travelling through time and places to see how money developed.
• A third of a stater from Lydia (in modern Turkey), from the 7th century BC, the first coin in the Western world, made of electrum, a natural mix of gold and silver.
• A Chinese banknote from the 9th century, the first paper money in the East. It was worth 1,000 bronze coins, and anyone caught forging it faced the death penalty, which tends to get a reaction.
• The dobra of 24 escudos, the biggest and heaviest gold coin in Portuguese history: 85 g and nearly the size of a biscuit.
• The morabitino of King Sancho II, the last of its kind minted in Portugal and the only one known in the world.
• A gold coin of King Manuel I from the time of the voyages of discovery (1499 to 1521).
• The fake and the real 500-escudo notes from the case of Alves dos Reis, one of Portugal’s most famous con men. Older children can have a go at spotting the difference.
• An augmented-reality screen where you can turn and zoom in on the coins on display.

Further on, a short film shows how the area around the museum changed from the Middle Ages to the rebuilding after the 1755 earthquake and the city today, and a section explains the Banco de Portugal’s work.

Part of the museum is the interpretation centre for the Muralha de D. Dinis, a section of the city wall from King Dinis’s reign that the museum says witnessed key moments in the story of the king and the city. Seeing a medieval wall inside a museum about modern money helps children understand that cities are built in layers. Groups can book a 60-minute guided visit of the wall.

Children of four to seven like the gold bar, the Hermes swapping game and making a banknote with their face. From about eight, the stories behind the objects start to land: the forger’s death penalty, the con man, the coin that exists only once. Teenagers can follow the bigger ideas of trade, saving and what a central bank does, and the Sunday afternoon tour is aimed at over-14s. Toddlers can come along, but there is little specifically for them.

The museum runs free 90-minute guided tours of all nine rooms at 15:00 on Sundays, with no booking needed, aimed at adults and young people over 14. It also lists Saturday afternoon tours in its programme. Family activities appear in the agenda under the Famílias category. For example, Vamos a votos! on 4 October 2026 was a free 90-minute session for children over 8 with an adult, about voting and democracy, which needed booking.

Schools and groups can book 90-minute visit-workshops and visit-games led by professional museum educators. The 2026 to 2027 programme includes Piratas e corsários (pirates and privateers) and Há bicharada no museu! (animal hunt) for younger primary children, a bartering game for ages 10 to 12, a saving game and a trade-routes game for early teens, and sessions on the history of banking, the euro and slavery for secondary students. Home-educating families can ask whether a group can book. The accompanying adults must stay with the group for the whole activity, so this is not a drop-off option. There are also accessible visits with Portuguese Sign Language and tactile visits where you can touch objects and even find out what money smells like.

Entry is free. The museum opens Wednesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00, with last entry at 17:30, and closes on Mondays and Tuesdays, 1 January, 1 May, 24 and 25 December. You do not need to book an ordinary visit or the Sunday tour. For family activities, groups and the wall visit, contact the museum on +351 213 213 240 (Wednesday to Sunday) or info@museudodinheiro.pt.

You go through a security scanner at the entrance, as you would expect at a central bank. Backpacks, large bags and umbrellas go in lockers at reception, and you cannot carry water bottles, eat or drink in the rooms. Under-12s must stay with an adult throughout. Flash photography is not allowed.

The museum cafeteria serves breakfast, snacks, lunch menus, burgers, pizza, salads, quiches and wraps, which makes it easy to feed a fussy eater. It opens Wednesday to Friday 10:00 to 17:30 and weekends 10:00 to 17:00. The website does not give detail on step-free access or baby changing, so phone ahead if you need them.

It is a compact museum. Most families spend about an hour, which makes it easy to fit into a day in the Baixa.

The museum is a few streets from Praça do Comércio and the river. The Elevador de Santa Luzia in Alfama is a short trip away, and the Museu das Comunicações near Cais do Sodré pairs well for a day on how modern life works. For lunch by the river, the Time Out Market is at Cais do Sodré.

At home afterwards, the museum’s website has a “Sabias que…?” quiz game, and the Portuguese mint’s Museu Casa da Moeda is a free online museum with more than 36,000 coins and 9,600 medals, plus games and videos. It is digital only, with no walk-in museum.

Is the Museu do Dinheiro free?

Yes. Entry is free, and so is the Sunday afternoon guided tour.

Can you really touch the gold bar?

Yes. The museum says the 12.6 kg gold bar is accessible to touch, behind the old strongroom door.

Is the Museu do Dinheiro open on Mondays?

No. It is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays and opens Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 18:00.

How long does a visit take?

About an hour for most families, or 90 minutes if you join the Sunday tour.

Can you bring a backpack or a buggy?

Backpacks and large bags must go in the lockers at reception. The website does not mention buggies, so ask at the entrance or phone ahead.