Nature, history, food and wine: the Centre of Portugal has it all, as Judith Schrut discovers on her visit to Portugal’s green and gorgeous heart.
At this time of year do you find yourself longing for sunshine, clear blue skies and new travel adventures? If so, you’re not alone. If so, I’d like to suggest an antidote, perhaps one you hadn’t thought about before: a visit to the Centre of Portugal.
The Centre of Portugal is a nature lover’s dream, a playground for history buffs and a food and wine lover’s paradise. You can explore age-old villages and ancient towns, discover pristine forests, river beaches and glacier valleys, stay in a mountain spa or an eco-lodge, hike or bike glorious trails alive with natural beauty and tickle your tastebuds with fresh chestnuts, quinces, cherries, cheese, smoked meats and more from farmers markets and family run eateries.
You’ll find generous helpings of history, nature, gastronomy and warm hospitality at every turn and at any time of year. And the most surprising thing of all is how little known this beautiful part of the world is.
Our journey begins in the medieval city of Coimbra.
Part 1: Coimbra, City of Dreams and Traditions
I’m standing in the vast, light-filled courtyard of Coimbra’s medieval University, perched dramatically on steep hills above the Mondego River. It’s the highest point in the city, the jewel in its lofty crown and the very best place to start any visit to the Centre of Portugal.
“Coimbra is a lesson in dream and tradition,” goes a popular Fado song. Pronounced “Qweem-bra”, the city sits on a hump in Portugal’s western spine, pretty much halfway between better known siblings Lisbon and Porto. It’s an ancient and venerable place, Portugal’s first capital, where students dress in long black capes and gowns, where Crown Prince Pedro and Inês de Castro’s tragic tale of forbidden love lives on, and where every step, stone, arch and alleyway is saturated with history.
The University, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Founded in 1290, University of Coimbra is one of the world’s oldest universities and a celebrated UNESCO World Heritage Site. This is the beating heart of the city, dominating with its breathtaking, panoramic view of the river and surrounding countryside. I trot to keep up with my enthusiastic, youthful, and knowledgeable guides, Rafaela and Liliana from Portugal Green Travel, as we climb the many stairs needed to get here. Although both graduated Coimbra University some time ago, their exuberance tells me that memories of student life are still very much alive.
Booking onto an official tour is the only way to see inside the University— this turns out to be an unmissable experience. Our tour starts in the cubicles of the old Academic Prison. The bells of the University’s 17th century clock tower used to ring every quarter-hour, regulating all aspects of student life. Until not very long ago, any student ignoring its 6pm chimes, signalling a strict back-to-room curfew, would be sentenced to a night or more in the Prison’s claustrophobic darkness. No surprise to learn the bellringer was the University’s most important worker. Nowadays, bells ring on the hour but still hold a little extra meaning at 6.
Next stop is the spectacular Joanine Library, a baroque treasure with a spectacular collection of books and furnishings so old, so rare, and so delicate that we are only permitted a ten-minute stay as our mere breath causes the books to deteriorate. The Library not only houses more than 60,000 books but a complete ecosystem— a legendary colony of live bats. They visit the Library each night, protecting the treasured tomes by eating insects which would otherwise destroy them.
We move on to the Royal Palace, the Grand Hall, the Arms Room and the exquisite 16th century Saint Michael’s Chapel. There are audible gasps at its intricately carved 2,000 pipe organ, generous gold leaf and hundreds of sumptuously decorated tiles. Leaving Coimbra University is such sweet sorrow that graduation includes longstanding customs like Rasganço, where graduating students tear off each other’s robes and hoods, rip them to shreds and drape pieces over gates, statues and fences around the city.
Unconditional Love at Sapientia Boutique Hotel
The University tour may be over but my Coimbra experience has only just begun. First, a quick stop to check in at Sapientia Boutique Hotel, a minute’s hop, skip and stone stairway from the University. If you’re not keen to spend the night with bookish bats or in the dark of the Academic Prison, you’d do well to book a room here.
The hotel is modern, bright, stylish and the only hotel inside the University precinct. It’s a dream project created by two couples-friends from three derelict buildings, which they call ‘an act of unconditional love’. Guest rooms are designed in honour of famous writers connected with Coimbran history. Mine is devoted to avant-garde poet Mário de Sá Carneiro. It’s inviting and unpretentious, all warm wood, smooth stone, soft suspended lights. A spacious balcony overlooks the hotel’s beautiful inner courtyard and gardens.
When the bells of the University clock tower next door ring at 6pm, Sapientia’s Wine Hour begins. Guests are invited to the hotel’s ‘rooftop full of stars’ for a sunset drink in memory of Antonino Vidal, 19th century winemaker, professor and former owner of one of the original buildings.
The Real República of Bota-Abaixo
But we’ve no time to toast Professor Vidal tonight. We’re on our way again, up footworn stairways, down cobblestone paths, through narrow alleyways until we’re standing in front of a huge, white door marked with skulls and crossbones and walls covered in colourful political graffiti. Rafaela explains we’re here to visit Real República Bota-Abaixo, one of Coimbra’s traditional, communal student houses, the Repúblicas. She knocks, the door opens and we’re welcomed in by Sofia, house resident and our host. Rafaela kindly tries to help me understand, suggesting Repúblicas are like American ‘frat houses’. As a long-ago graduate of a renowned California university famed for its anti-war marches and Bohemian ways I can safely say this is no fraternity, although it is a lot like the Student Co-op I lived in my first college year, dubbed by local media as ‘the last bastion of Sixties counterculture’.
Sofia proudly shows us around the house— its communal kitchen, bathroom, study nooks and hangout rooms, filled wall to ceiling with posters, photos and memorabilia from past residents. Many Repúblicas, and particularly this one, were known for their pro-democracy, anti-fascist activism, especially during Portugal’s long right-wing dictatorship of President António Salazar, from 1932-1970. (Ironically, Salazar was an alumnus and former professor at Coimbra University). A quartet of murals on Bota’s living room walls recall student causes and campaigns: May Day, Karl Marx, Abril Vencerá (for 25 April 1974, the date of Portugal’s Carnation Revolution), and revered radical poet-musician José “Zeca” Afonso. One of Afonso’s many visits to Bota is captured on the record sleeve of his acclaimed Baladas e Canções (Ballads and Songs) album.
Fado Time
We’re invited to stay for communal dinner at the house but must politely decline. That’s because it’s nearly 6 o’clock and in modern Coimbra, where the old curfew is all but forgotten, 6pm is music time. So, off we go at pace (and did I mention stairs?) to Fado ao Centro, the city’s fabulous Fado House, featuring daily performances by former students of the University. Fado is Portugal’s special sound and Coimbra has its own version, created long ago by students who, when settling in the city to attend the University, took their Portuguese guitars and romantic longings with them. Now as then, Fado de Coimbra is performed exclusively by men, who observe a strict University-like dress code of cassock and black cape and sing melancholy songs of yearning and lost love. It’s heady and emotional stuff, so it’s fitting that the concert ends with a warming glass of Port in the Fado House courtyard.
Medieval streets, gorgeous shops and foodie heaven
Afterwards we make our way down stairs, then more stairs, through Coimbra’s 9th century Arco de Almedina and Moorish walls to the medieval lower town. Its lively streets are lined with charming cafés and gorgeous shops, selling everything from ceramics, cookware and vintage clothes to giant slabs of chocolate, mouth-watering cakes and pastéis de nata, wines, cheeses, all kinds of olives and many other foodie delights.
Everywhere history has left its mark. On Rua Visconde da Luz, archaeologists are restoring a mikveh, a cluster of 15th century Jewish ritual baths accidentally discovered by plumbers fixing a water leak in an old building, while across the street a trio of black-caped students play some spontaneous Fado.
I discover that eating out in Coimbra is pretty wonderful, with the coolest spots near Rua de Quebra Costas (literally, ‘Backbreaking Street’). We dine at Fangas Maior, one of several tiny restaurants on narrow Rua da Fernando Tomás.
Petiscoes (shared plates, the Portuguese version of tapas) are the food style of the moment, ideal for diners like me who want to taste everything on the menu and still have room for dessert. All are modestly priced, beautifully presented and made with local seasonal products. We feast on olives suffused with garlic, ginger and chili, hot roast chestnuts with caramelized onion, buttersoft bacalhau (cod) on chickpea puree, tender beefsteak and a delicious regional red wine. It’s love at first taste with our dessert of requeijão cheese heaped with fresh pumpkin jam and almonds.
Then, a sleepy, satiated stumble up those now familiar stairs and we’re back at the lovely Sapientia. Too late to see the splendid rooftop, but I do sleep incredibly well beneath an antiqued drawing of Mário de Sá Carneiro, lulled by the soft sounds of the waterfall in the courtyard below.
Judith’s visit was designed and organised ‘with love’ by Portugal Green Travel DMC & Visit Center of Portugal TCP/ARPT Centro de Portugal.
Special thanks to Filipe Pinto, Hugo Texeira Francisco, João Ramos, Rafaela Carvalho, Liliana Carvalho and Dulce Goncalves.
For more information about Centre of Portugal click here. For more information about Portugal Green Travel click here
Image credits as above; all other images Judith Schrut.
