Botanical Museum

Category: Culture and Entertainment > Museum

District: Beja > Beja > Beja

Location

Situated on the campus of the Polytechnic Institute of Beja, within the School of Agriculture, the museum occupies a bright building with simple lines and tall windows. The surroundings are landscaped, with flowerbeds of plants adapted to the Alentejo climate, featuring succulents and agaves.

Access is via a stone path through low vegetation and shady trees, creating a calm and academic atmosphere. Light streams generously through the glazed facades, and the area is spacious and quiet, pleasant for a break before or after the visit.

Origin and Mission

The Botanical Museum opened to the public on October 2, 2002, following years of collections initiated in the 1990s to support the teaching of Economic Botany. The museography of the exhibition hall was prepared with the contribution of the Kew Botanical Gardens in London, and in 2008 the museum became a support unit for training and development at the Polytechnic Institute of Beja.

It received the National Grand Prize Ford Motor Company for Conservation and Environment in 2003 and, in the same year, represented Portugal before the jury of the UNESCO Sultan Qaboos Prize. Since 2023, it has hosted the UNESCO Chair dedicated to Ethnobotany and the safeguarding of plant-based heritage, reinforcing the scientific and educational vocation of the space.

Collection and Themes

The collection has an ethnobotanical focus and showcases the relationship between people and plants in different cultures. It brings together about two thousand objects, including raw materials and artifacts, presented in temporary and permanent exhibitions with themes ranging from the history of plant use to more contemporary approaches.

Among the pieces are uncommon examples, such as a shirt made from pineapple leaf fibers, incense from Oman, balm of Gilead, rare spices, impressively sized sea coconuts, vegetable ivory, amber and jet necklaces, palm and rush baskets, as well as works in wheat straw and fig pith sculptures. Also noteworthy is the reference to the Wollemi pine, a living fossil that was associated with the museum for years, indicating an interest in conservation and natural history.