MAAT Lisbon

MAAT Gallery and the roof you can walk on

MAAT stands for Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, and it’s run by the EDP Foundation, the cultural arm of Portugal’s big electricity company. Its new building, MAAT Gallery, opened in October 2016.

Amanda Levete and her studio, AL_A, made the roof part of the street, joined to the city by a footbridge over the railway.

Time Out Lisbon picks sunset as the time to be up there.

Outside, the garden by Vladimir Djurovic, a Lebanese landscape architect, runs 225 metres along the river, with a wildflower meadow, terraces, a pebble beach and large sculptures.

Central Tejo and the art at MAAT

Next door stands Central Tejo, the power station itself. Its permanent show, The Electricity Factory (A Fábrica da Eletricidade), displays part of the museum’s Energy Heritage Collection, about 3,500 pieces going back to the 19th century.

Of the two buildings, it’s Central Tejo that visitors praise most.

The art comes from the EDP Foundation, which has collected since 2000 and now owns 2,500 works by more than 300 artists. In 2015 it added the collection the artist Pedro Cabrita Reis had put together, with works by 74 Portuguese artists.

Until January 2027, the exhibition Turn around shows about 90 works by 58 artists at Central Tejo, the biggest showing of the EDP Foundation collection so far.

Also on in October 2026 are VENUS, the Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos’s take on the world of the fashion designer Valentino Garavani, and without sorrow of heart, by Cabrita Reis himself.

Visiting MAAT: tickets, free entry and hours

One ticket covers both buildings: €16 for visitors who don’t live in Portugal, €12 for students and 15% off for over-65s. The Lisboa Card also takes 15% off, though the museum doesn’t let discounts stack.

Under-12s go in free. The garden is open to everyone, and the free first-Sunday mornings are for residents of Portugal only.

MAAT sells its own tickets, online and at the desk, and its website doesn’t mention the Lisboa Card. The 15% is on the Lisboa Card’s own list of discounts, so have the card, €31 for 24 hours, with you when you buy.

There’s also CABE, one ticket for MAAT and three more museums: the MAC/CCB, the Julião Sarmento Pavilion and MACAM. Bought online it’s 20% off, and you get 90 days to see all four.

Two things can catch you out. On busy days the ticket office may close before the museum does. And visitors in March 2026 reported finding part of the museum closed, with nothing said online.

Big bags and umbrellas go in the lockers, and lifts and ramps reach the upper floors. The restaurant and café in MAAT Gallery open every day.

To see both buildings, allow about an hour and a half: that’s how long one visitor spent in April 2026.

The history of Central Tejo and MAAT

Central Tejo ran without a break from 1909 to 1954, then on reduced service until the 1970s.

It was listed as a building of public interest in 1986, opened as the Electricity Museum in 1990 and reopened in 2006. Ten years later the white gallery went up beside it, and the two became one museum, MAAT.

Along the river from MAAT to Belém Tower

From here Belém’s monuments line up to the west along the river, with the water on your left all the way. The Cascais-line train takes about 8 minutes from Cais do Sodré to Belém, tram 15E runs out along the river too, and the Lisboa Card covers both.