Coimbra is a city in central Portugal. It is located along the river Mondego and is one of the country’s largest cities. The Romans founded Coimbra with the name Aeminium, and it lay on the road between Olisipo and Bracara Augusta. In 468, the Swabians destroyed the nearby city of Conimbriga, and then Aeminium took both the name and the episcopate from Conimbriga, which later became Coimbra. In 711 the city was conquered by the Moors, and only in 1064 King Fernando recaptured Coimbra for Christianity. In 1290, Portugal’s first university was established in Coimbra, and in the following centuries the city was among the leading cultural cities in the country.

Today, there are many sights in Coimbra, some dating back to Roman times. In the center there is an old district with narrow streets and cozy squares, and in the neighboring streets you can see the large, landscaped squares and buildings that characterize Coimbra. You can start a stroll in the old town at Praça 8 de Maio, where Coimbra’s Town Hall and the Mosteiro de Santa Cruz monastery are located. The monastery was founded in 1131, and the complex with a church was built the following century and significantly remodeled in the early 16th century. Both the church and the monastery are worth seeing, and behind the buildings you can walk the small park, Jardim da Manga.

In the area you can go to the square Largo da Sé Velha as well, where Coimbra’s old cathedral is located. It was built in the 12th-13th centuries, and here King Sancho I was crowned as Portugal’s second king in 1185. The cathedral was almost built like a castle due to the disputes that were in the area in the 12th century, but you can also see later conversions from i.e. the renaissance. Not far from here you can see Coimbra’s beautiful new cathedral, Sé Nova, which was constructed as a Jesuit church after this order arrived in Coimbra in 1543. The order was dissolved in Portugal in 1759, and in 1772 the episcopal seat moved from the smaller old cathedral to the current one. In the area around Sé Nova, you can see Coimbra’s university campus, and you can visit the university’s botanical garden, where the São Sebastião aqueduct stands. It dates from the end of the 16th century, and it was built on top of a Roman aqueduct which supplied the upper part of the city with water.

Another attraction in the city center is the Paço das Escolas in the Largo Porta Férrea square, which is the main building of the city’s university, Portugal’s oldest. The beautiful university buildings are located around a square where you can see the church Capela de São Miguel from the 16th century too. These buildings used to be Coimbra’s royal palace, and they are now on UNESCO’s list of world heritage sites. Some of the details are the Porta Férrea gate from 1634, which was built to mark the entrance to the university, and the university tower from 1728-1733, whose clock played a major role in academic everyday life. From the old castle, the hall named Gran Salón de Actos is beautiful and historically interesting, since João I was proclaimed king here in 1385. The highly elegantly decorated Biblioteca Joanina offers other impressive interiors.