Grão Vasco National Museum

The Grão Vasco National Museum occupies the former bishop's palace next to the cathedral on the Adro da Sé. It's one of the finest regional museums in Portugal, with a collection that centres on the Flemish-influenced Portuguese Renaissance painting of Vasco Fernandes and his school, who worked in Viseu in the early 16th century.

The paintings are remarkable: large altarpieces of great emotional intensity, combining a Flemish precision of detail with a distinctly Portuguese solemnity. The St Peter Enthroned, with its extraordinary representation of an indigenous Brazilian in the background, and the Adoration of the Magi are the highlights. Beyond the painting collection, the museum has good collections of furniture, ceramics, and goldsmith's work. Allow at least an hour and a half. The museum is closed on Mondays.

things to do museum
A story
Vasco Fernandes — Grão Vasco, "the Great Vasco" — never travelled outside Portugal, yet his painting shows the unmistakable influence of Flemish masters he could only have known through prints and descriptions. His altarpiece of St Peter in the museum's collection includes, in the background, a depiction of a Brazilian indigenous person — thought to be one of the first representations of a native American in Portuguese art, painted around 1530.