Introducing Coimbra

The medieval capital of Portugal for over a hundred years, and site of the country’s greatest university for the past five centuries, Coimbra wears its weighty importance in Portuguese history with gritty dignity. Its historic core straggles down a hillside on the east bank of the Rio Mondego, a multicoloured collage of buildings spanning nearly a millennium, from the Moorish Arco de Almedina at the base of town to the 18th-century clock tower crowning the courtyard of the old university.

If you visit during the academic year, you’ll be sure to feel the university’s influence. Students throng the bars and cafes of the old town and Praça da República; posters advertise talks on everything from genetics to genocide; and graffiti scrawled outside repúblicas (communal student dwellings) addresses the political issues of the day. If you can, come during the Queima das Fitas in early May, a raucous weeklong celebration featuring live music every night. Or stroll the streets on a summer evening, when the city’s old stone walls reverberate with the haunting metallic notes of the Portuguese guitarra (guitar) and the full, deep voices of fado singers.

Take a few steps outside the historic centre and you’ll also see the city’s modern side – a brand new riverfront park with terrace bars and restaurants, a spiffy pedestrian bridge across the Mondego, and vast shopping complexes offering everything you’d expect in a major European city.

Coimbra makes a fine base for day visits to the remarkable Roman ruins at Conimbriga, the medieval hilltop fortress of Montemor-o-Velho, or the outlandishly ornate Palace Hotel do Buçaco.