Description of the attraction
Sintra is located near Lisbon and is famous for its attractions, which are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The city is also famous for its unique toy museum, which has more than 40,000 exhibits. The collection has been collected for over 50 years and previously belonged to the Portuguese João Arbues Moreira. The opening of the museum took place in 1989, two years after the foundation of the João Arbues Moreira Foundation, to whom this collection was donated. The exhibits include toys that are more than three thousand years old (from Egypt), Hornby toy trains from 1930, and many other toys. The museum houses a workshop where toys are repaired and restored, and a multimedia room.
João Moreira began collecting dolls and toys as a child. When the collector studied in England, he had the opportunity to replenish the collection with English toys. The collection grew larger and larger, the collector constantly bought new items. Ten years after the opening of the museum, the collection no longer fit in the building, and the museum moved to a new building allocated by the city's municipality, which previously housed the fire department.
There are 4 floors in the museum. On the ground floor there is a ticket office, a shop and a restaurant. On the second floor you can see very old toys - II-III centuries BC, toys from the time of the Industrial Revolution, trains, ships and cars of such famous factories as "Lehman" (Germany), "Bing", "Karret", 1895-1914, and toys of the XIX-XX centuries and handmade. On the third floor, among the exhibits are toy soldiers, motorcycles, plastic dolls, space technology, Portuguese toys and toy cars from well-known companies. And on the fourth floor there is a toy workshop.
