GOING OUT FOR DINNER?
Dinner at Penalva da Graca
WANT TO GO FOR A SWIM?
A busy day during the high season.
WE LOVE RIDING THE TRAM 28
Lisbon's popular Tram 28 is only 3 minutes from Tins Lisbon. Here is all you need to know.
Do you know this Portuguese Christmas Tradition – "Doll Healing"?
Lisbon’s Hospital de Bonecas: The Oldest Doll Museum Near Tings Lisbon
From elaborately-costumed German porcelain dolls in glass-fronted armor to a black doll made in 1915 in Angola, Cutileiro, a former primary school teacher, is far from spooked by her motley crew of patients. Some of their stories have been lost to time.
Others traveled with immigrants and refugees and now represent a family’s singular possession left from home. "We don’t value one over another here, though" Cutileiro says. "To us, all the dolls are valuable"
Others traveled with immigrants and refugees and now represent a family’s singular possession left from home. "We don’t value one over another here, though" Cutileiro says. "To us, all the dolls are valuable"
Welcome to Lisbon’s Strangest Museum
If it weren’t for a random story I spotted years ago in National Geographic, I’d probably still be blissfully unaware of one of Lisbon’s most bizarre and captivating attractions—just ten minutes downhill from Tings Lisbon.
Hospital de Bonecas—known locally as the Doll Hospital—is unique even by Lisbon’s quirky standards.
I stumbled across a quote from National Geographic (November 22, 2017), describing the hospital’s founder and her “motley crew of patients”—from elaborately-costumed German porcelain dolls to a black doll made in Angola in 1915. Some dolls have crossed oceans with immigrants and refugees, carrying their family stories.
As the owner Cutileiro says:
“We don’t value one over another here. To us, all the dolls are valuable.”
What I found at Hospital de Bonecas was the weirdest museum experience I’ve ever had. One room overflows with dolls in all sizes, colors, and ‘conditions’. Elsewhere, rows of shelves and drawers brim with eyes, limbs, and spare parts—the “ingredients” for the doll doctors’ magical repairs. It’s a tradition begun in 1830, when Carlota Georgina Severo started the hospital after seeing a child weep over her broken doll.
How cute is that?
“We have a baby Jesus today, he came with a problem with his fingers… The hospital happens to be a poly-trauma unit. We have five doll surgeons here, all of whom have received certification.”
Lisbon’s Hospital de Bonecas: History, Museum & Traditions
Hospital de Bonecas was founded in 1830 by Dona Carlota, who started by sewing and repairing rag dolls for local children in Praça da Figueira only 10 minutes walk down the hill from Tings. Passed down through five generations, today it is both a busy repair shop and a museum full of childhood memories, tradition, and craft.
The Doll Doctors’ Christmas Role
Manuela Cutileiro, the current owner, explains:
“We have a baby Jesus today, he came with a problem with his fingers… The hospital happens to be a poly-trauma unit. We have five doll surgeons here, all of whom have received certification.”
The Doll Hospital is Lisbon's strangest Christmas Tradition
You can visit the Doll Museum all year. But at Christmas time its something special.
I only found out why at a later visit.
When the Portuguese unpack all their Christmas decoration items, a lot of the old Baby Dolls they use for the Baby Jesus in their Christmas Cribs breaks. As the cribs have to be ‘up’ before Christmas they need to fix the Baby Jesus asap.
The Doll Doctors at Hospital de Bonecas are the only ones who can do that. So they are busy in December healing Dolls.
Highly recommended
Thomas
