Museu do Tesouro Real

This guide to the Museu do Tesouro Real in Lisbon returns to the night of November 27th, 1807, when Napoleon's troops were days from the city and Queen Maria the First and Prince Regent João rushed the crown jewels aboard ships bound for Brazil. It follows the royal court through fourteen years in Rio de Janeiro, where a new set of regalia was commissioned from scratch, and the objects that traveled with them, including one gem João the Sixth wore suspended from his ceremonial robes. The guide asks what actually became of that stone after his death in 1826. Look closely at the room's diamonds as you listen — historians still argue over what some of these pieces really are.