National Coach Museum

This guide to the National Coach Museum in Lisbon opens in 1716, when King João V needed something only the Pope could grant and answered with a spectacle instead of a diplomat. You'll trace the Coach of the Oceans, built in Rome for the entrance procession of the Marquis of Fontes, and the gilded allegorical figures on its back meant to announce Portugal's reach. The guide also follows how the coaches eventually made their way home, into a museum opened to the public in 1905 by Queen Amélia.