Coimbra

History was written by the Celts until the 2nd Century AD, when the Romans arrived , leaving us examples of their grandeur, which can be admired in the Cryptoportic of Civitas Aeminium in the National Museum Machado de Castro. Coimbra has then turned moorish, and the city within the walls was already known as Almedina when the reconquest by the Christians began.
Cities centred around religious buildings for protection and D. Afonso Henriques, Portugal's first king, founded the Monastery of Santa Cruz in 1331. The Old Cathedral, dates back to 1184 and it is still a fine example of Romanesque architecture. However, Coimbra owes the monks of the S.Bento and Cister Orders, the sober monasteries and convents, where the light illuminates the walls and the arches rise up to God. The ancient Convent of Santa Clara-a-Velha is also witness of the devotion people rendered to the Queen Isabel of Aragon, who would later become a saint.
Inês de Castro, that beautiful woman Prince Pedro fell in love with, has also lived in this convent, the same place where she would later be killed, by order of King Afonso IV. It was the beginning of a love story, the most tragic and immortal one that has ever been written in the Portuguese language. Coimbra became secularly famous with the Renaissance and with the founding of the University. The University was founded in 1290 by King Dinis and definitively transferred to Coimbra in 1537. The dignifying Hall has always granted its pride, but the distant seas, sailed by the Portuguese, also brought other treasures: the Portals of St. Michael’s Chapel, in Manueline style, and even the signs of exuberance given by the exotic woods and the Brazilian gold that we can find in the decoration of King John’s Library. Via Latina, an elegant colonnade, gives access to the Grand Hall, called Sala dos Capelos, where the most important ceremonies of the University still take place and that we can recognise because of the kings’ portraits it has on the walls. The bell, in the old thirty-four metre high tower, still strikes every hour, but it is in May that the University gets dazzled with the colours of all faculties, when the student festivities begin with the “burning of the ribbon” and finish with a student parade through the city. The students have always given and they still give Coimbra, fados and ballads, books and poems, dreams and nostalgia. This is the city you must visit completely. Discover the old streets in the uptown, admire the Mondego River from the Patio of the University, go shopping in the pedestrian streets downtown, admire the facades of the "Repúblicas", the students’ houses which are still ruled by irreverence. Go to the bookshops, discover the Antiquarians, taste the good cuisine and, if you’re in Coimbra in May, don't forget that the town gets many different colours and, on a Thursday, at midnight, in the stairs of the Old Cathedral, you can silently listen to the Fado of Coimbra. It's always during the "Queima das Fitas" because as the poem says " Coimbra is more charming when it's time to say goodbye!" You just need to wonder why...

History was written by the Celts until the 2nd Century AD, when the Romans arrived , leaving us examples of their grandeur, which can be admired in the Cryptoportic of Civitas Aeminium in the National Museum Machado de Castro. Coimbra has then turned moorish, and the city within the walls was already known as Almedina when the reconquest by the Christians began.

Cities centred around religious buildings for protection and D. Afonso Henriques, Portugal's first king, founded the Monastery of Santa Cruz in 1331.
The Old Cathedral, dates back to 1184 and it is still a fine example of Romanesque architecture. However, Coimbra owes the monks of the S.Bento and Cister Orders, the sober monasteries and convents, where the light illuminates the walls and the arches rise up to God. The ancient Convent of Santa Clara-a-Velha is also witness of the devotion people rendered to the Queen Isabel of Aragon, who would later become a saint.

Inês de Castro, that beautiful woman Prince Pedro fell in love with, has also lived in this convent, the same place where she would later be killed, by order of King Afonso IV. It was the beginning of a love story, the most tragic and immortal one that has ever been written in the Portuguese language.
Coimbra became secularly famous with the Renaissance and with the founding of the University. The University was founded in 1290 by King Dinis and definitively transferred to Coimbra in 1537. The dignifying Hall has always granted its pride, but the distant seas, sailed by the Portuguese, also brought other treasures: the Portals of St. Michael’s Chapel, in Manueline style, and even the signs of exuberance given by the exotic woods and the Brazilian gold that we can find in the decoration of King John’s Library.
Via Latina, an elegant colonnade, gives access to the Grand Hall, called Sala dos Capelos, where the most important ceremonies of the University still take place and that we can recognise because of the kings’ portraits it has on the walls. The bell, in the old thirty-four metre high tower, still strikes every hour, but it is in May that the University gets dazzled with the colours of all faculties, when the student festivities begin with the “burning of the ribbon” and finish with a student parade through the city.
The students have always given and they still give Coimbra, fados and ballads, books and poems, dreams and nostalgia. This is the city you must visit completely. Discover the old streets in the uptown, admire the Mondego River from the Patio of the University, go shopping in the pedestrian streets downtown, admire the facades of the "Repúblicas", the students’ houses which are still ruled by irreverence. Go to the bookshops, discover the Antiquarians, taste the good cuisine and, if you’re in Coimbra in May, don't forget that the town gets many different colours and, on a Thursday, at midnight, in the stairs of the Old Cathedral, you can silently listen to the Fado of Coimbra.
It's always during the "Queima das Fitas" because as the poem says " Coimbra is more charming when it's time to say goodbye!" You just need to wonder why...