THE CALOUSTE GULBENKIAN MUSEUM IN LISBON

The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum is located off the tourist paths, on the outskirts of Europe, and far away from the centre of Lisbon, in the serenity of the Santa Gertrudes Park. Its austere concrete buildings hide treasures from the collection of an extraordinary man, a millionaire of Armenian origin, an oil magnate, and an art and garden lover. The article presents the collector, the history of his collection and the museum buildings which now form an original park and museum complex run by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. In 2010, the complex was entered into the register of national monuments of Portugal, thus being the first masterpiece of the 20th-century architecture to feature in this register.