Gulbenkian: the garden and the two collections
An oil tycoon's art, a modernist garden, and a lake you can lose an afternoon beside. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. São Sebastião
Step out and the foundation's low concrete blocks are right there, set back behind their own garden. Most people miss them entirely, which is part of the pleasure.

2. The garden and the lake
One of the finest modern gardens in the city — designed in the sixties to flow around the buildings, not frame them. Take the path down to the lake; the ducks are confident and the benches are the good kind. You can do the whole walk for the garden alone.

3. The founder's collection
Calouste Gulbenkian's own hoard — Egyptian to Lalique, with Rembrandt and a room of René Lalique jewellery that stops people mid-sentence. The building reopens from a long refit around mid-2026; check it's open before you count on it.

4. The Modern Collection (CAM)
The other half — twentieth-century Portuguese art, on the garden's south side. The Kengo Kuma canopy and reworked grounds are recent. Free some afternoons; if the timing lands, take it.

5. The amphitheatre and stream
Between the two buildings, an open-air amphitheatre steps down to the water. Empty most days, used for summer concerts. Sit on the top step for a minute; this is the garden's quiet centre.

6. Praça de Espanha
Leave by the garden's western edge and you're at the square and its metro. A blunt city junction after all that green, but the contrast is the right way to end.

Gulbenkian: the garden and the two collections