The list of 50 nominees, which includes the three Portuguese museums, was published at the beginning of December on the official website of the European Museum Forum, responsible for organising the award.

The winners will be announced on the last day of the annual European Museum of the Year award conference, which will take place in Portimão, in the Algarve, between 1 and 4 May, 2024.

Created by the Council of Europe, the European Museum Forum has awarded the European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA) since 1977, the year of its foundation.

Opened in June 2022, the Royal Treasury Museum, located in the west wing of Palácio da Ajuda, brings together one of the most important world collections of jewelry and goldsmithing from the Portuguese monarchy.

It is housed in a large vault built for this purpose, in the new wing of the palace, the result of a project that involved the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage (DGPC), the Lisbon Tourism Association (ATL) and the City Council. from Lisbon.

The Rua dos Correeiros Archaeological Center (NARC) was opened in 1995 and classified as a National Monument in 2015, having closed for works between 2019 and the end of 2021, when it reopened with a new museography created by Atelier Brückner for the Millennium bcp Foundation.

The archaeological site located underground, between Rua Augusta and Rua dos Correeiros, in Lisbon, exposes archaeological and urban remains of the city, from the Iron Age to the Pombalino Period.

Opened in 2022, following renovation work on an Art Nouveau building designed by Ernesto Korrodi, which housed the former facilities of the Banco Nacional Ultramarino in the 20th century, the Covilhã Museum displays the municipality's heritage.

Among the 50 EMYA finalists are the ZOOM Children's Museum in Vienna (Austria), the Museum of Ancient Art in Namur (Belgium), the Museum of Međimurje Čakovec (Croatia), the Archaeological Museum of Larnaca (Cyprus), the Museum of Czech Literature in Prague (Czech Republic), the Refugee Museum in Oksbøl (Denmark) and the Kalamaja Museum in Tallin (Estonia).

Also nominated are, among others, the Luostarinmäki Museum in Turku (Finland), the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt (Germany), the Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts in Kyiv (Ukraine), the Burrell Collection Museum in Glasgow (United Kingdom ), the National Museum of Lublin (Poland) and the Istanbul Cinema Museum (Turkey).

In the area of ​​museology, the European Museum of the Year Award is the main and oldest award given by the Forum and also the most prestigious in Europe, created to recognise excellence in the European museum sector and promote innovative processes.