Lisbon · Belém
Centro Cultural de Belém
A pink limestone fortress of a cultural centre, holding the twentieth century
A modern collection running from Picasso and Duchamp to Warhol and Bacon
Built for Portugal's European presidency in 1992 and criticised at the time for its scale, the centre is a complex of pink limestone blocks with courtyards between them, holding exhibition galleries, two concert halls and a modern art collection that covers the major twentieth-century movements at one or two works each.
It works best as an overview: cubism, surrealism, pop, minimalism and Bacon in a sequence that takes ninety minutes and explains the century to anyone who wants it explained.
The detail
Good to know
- Opened
- 1992
- Collection
- Modern and contemporary, 20th century
- Also
- Two concert halls and a conference centre
- Nearby
- MAAT and the Jerónimos monastery
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