Navy Planetarium

This planetarium is the materialisation of the heavens in architecture. The building is an elegant formalisation of a large reinforced concrete dome on top of a horizontal volume that defines the public space between the Hieronymite Monastery and the Navy Museum. Like the latter building, the design for the planetarium is also by Frederico Jorge, giving a certain degree of continuity to the complex. The Navy Planetarium, previously named the Calouste Gulbenkian Planetarium, was built between 1963 and 1965 is incorporated into the Navy Museum. Its importance lies in its role of explaining and disseminating astronomical studies to the general public and in the possibility of making astronomy a more popular subject area, and also to keep the dream alive of spreading scientific knowledge in Portugal. In 2004 and 2005 the Planetarium underwent extensive renovation work that involved extension and renovation and a re-vitalisation project in partnership with the Ciência Viva programme, which spent EUR 3.5 million on the project and became the planetarium’s main partners. On 19 July 2005 the planetarium reopened its doors with a new main projector and an upgraded auditorium.