In 1726 King João V bought the “Quinta de Baixo” from João da Silveira Telo e Meneses, 3rd Count of Aveiras. It was located by the Tagus River in the pleasant neighbourhood of Belém in the western part of Lisbon where there were a number of aristocratic houses, the Palace of Belém and a Riding Arena.

In 1786 Prince João, future King João VI, son of Queen Maria I and King Pedro III, and a great devotee of the Equestrian Arts, had the old Riding Arena torn down in order to build the current structure.

The highlight of the neo-Classical style building, designed by the Italian architect Giacomo Azzolini is the large main hall that is 50 m long and 17 m wide. At the upper part of the top floor of the two-storey hall are tribunes connected by narrow galleries with columns, intended to allow the Royal Family and Court to watch the equestrian games.

The construction of the Royal Riding Arena began in 1787 and, even though the building structure was ready a year later, the exterior and interior decoration continued until around 1828.

In 1791 Francisco José da Costa provided the panels of painted, glazed tiles that decorated the tribunes. In 1793 the interior balustrade that surrounds the hall, work of the engraver Gonçalo José, was put in.

The painters Francisco de Setúbal, Francisco José de Oliveira, Joaquim José Lopes, called “o Bugre”, and the Frenchman Nicolau Delerive, among others, worked on the interior decoration between 1792 and 1799.

Elements linked to the equestrian arts are dominant among the decorative motifs used in all the ceiling and panel decoration on the upper part of the Hall.
The allegorical scenes painted on canvas in the three large oval medallions on the ceiling of the Riding Arena are noteworthy.

In the first is the figure of a knight symbolic of Portugal with four female figures that symbolize the continents. These are easily identifiable by the animal that accompanies them: the horse for Europe, the camel for Asia, the crocodile for Africa and the parrot for America, respectively.

In the central medallion a female figure wearing a crown holds the horn of Abundance, symbolising peace and prosperity for the kingdom.

In the third medallion the allegory of war is suggested by the figure carrying a lance and shield and wearing a helmet. He is riding in a chariot pulled by lions with the female figure of Victory next to it.

In 1904, work was carried out under the direction of Rosendo Carvalheira, architect for the Royal Palaces, to modify the Riding Arena into a museum. The paintings were restored at that time by the artists José Malhoa and António Conceição e Silva.

Later, in 1940, a new project directed by the architect Raul Lino would allow the enlargement of the exhibition area with the construction of a new side hall.
 

Between 1999 and 2001, the restoration of the roof area of the building was carried out, in addition to the remodelling of the side hall ceiling, giving the building its current appearance.