Puppet Museum

This guide to the Puppet Museum in Lisbon centers on António José da Silva, the city's most celebrated puppet playwright of the 1730s, known to the Inquisition only as O Judeu. It follows his childhood after his mother's arrest for secretly practicing Judaism, his own arrest and torture in 1726, and the packed houses at the Teatro do Bairro Alto that watched his puppets act out Medea and Don Quixote while the Inquisition took notes in the audience. Portuguese street figures share the room with masks and puppets brought from Southeast Asia and Africa.