In this paper, we present the photoluminescence properties of Pr 3+ , Sm 3+ and Er 3+ doped phosphate glasses. Optical absorption and emission spectra of lanthanide active ions in P 2 O 5 –CaO–SrO–BaO glass have been investigated at room temperature. These glasses have shown strong absorption bands in the near-infrared (NIR) and visible (VIS) region. For Pr 3+ doped glass, emission bands centered at 608nm ( 3 P 0 → 3 H 6 + 1 D 2 − 3 H 4 ), 640nm ( 3 P 0 → 3 F 2 ), 686nm ( 3 P 0 – 3 F 3 ) and 723nm ( 3 P 0 → 3 F 4 ) have been observed with 480nm ( 3 H 4 → 3 P 0 ) excitation wavelength. Of them, 686nm has shown bright red emission. Emission bands of ( 4 G 5/2 → 6 H 5/2 ) 560nm, ( 4 G 5/2 → 6 H 7/2 ) 600nm and ( 4 G 5/2 → 6 H 9/2 ) 645nm for the Sm 3+ phosphate glass, with excitation at ( 6 H 5/2 → 4 F 7/2 ) 400nm have been recorded. With regard to the Er 3+ phosphate glass, a bright fluorescent green–yellow emission at 546nm ( 4 S 3/2 → 4 I 15/2 ) have been observed. Analysis of decay curves of luminescence revealed occurrence of the strong luminescence quenching originating from the 3 P 0 metastable level of Pr 3+ and 4 S 3/2 state of Er 3+ mainly by a multiphonon relaxation processes to 1 D 2 , 4 F 9/2 levels respectively. Moreover these results are compared with those obtained by using the Judd–Ofelt theory. According to the Judd–Ofelt theory, the Judd–Ofelt intensity parameters Ω 2,4,6 were calculated, by which the radiative transition probabilities and radiative lifetimes of luminescent levels were obtained.