“These additions will be very welcome”, replied Dalila Rodrigues to PCP deputy António Filipe, when asked about the possibility of extending it to other museums “in the orbit of the Central Administration”, such as the Navy Museum, or to museums “where the State has strong financial intervention, notably the Serralves Foundation”, a free model that came into force on 1 August.

According to Dalila Rodrigues, the Ministry of Culture has already received “expression of interest from some private museums” in joining the current regime.

“We only have an instrumental, operational difficulty here”, said Dalila Rodrigues, referring to the creation of “a central database, because the ticket office of the 37 museums, monuments and palaces protected by the MC is on a network and this allows accounting of the number of entries, to which you are entitled, in a very simplified way, requiring you to indicate your taxpayer number and citizen card only once”.

Free entry to the 37 museums, monuments and palaces protected by the State is no longer restricted to Sundays and holidays and it is now possible to choose 52 days a year of free access, since August 1 of this year.

According to Dalila Rodrigues, since 1 August, more than 300 thousand visitors have taken advantage of the measure.

The Minister of Culture is being heard this afternoon in Parliament as part of the discussion on the specificity of the State Budget proposal for 2025. The joint hearing brings together deputies from the parliamentary committees on Culture, Communication, Youth and Sports, and Budget, Finance and Public Administration.