Other sights in Portugal
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Temple
Opposite the museum are the remains of a Roman temple dating from the 2nd or early 3rd century. It’s among the best-preserved Roman monuments in Portugal, and probably on the Iberian Peninsula. Though it’s commonly referred to as the Temple of Diana, there’s no consensus about the deity to which it was dedicated, and some archaeologists believe it may have been dedicated to Julius Caesar. How did these 14 Corinthian columns, capped with Estremoz marble, manage to survive in such good shape for some 18 centuries? The temple was apparently walled up in the Middle Ages to form a small fortress, and then used as the town slaughterhouse. It was uncovered late in the 19th centu…
reviewed
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Centro de Recuperação do Lobo Ibérico
There’s no need to be afraid of the wolves at the Centro de Recuperação do Lobo Ibérico located near Malveira, 10km east of Mafra. The centre is home to a pack of around 20 wolves that can no longer live in the wild. Set in a forested valley, the centre aims to boost the rapidly dwindling numbers of Portugal’s Iberian wolf population (now just 300 in the wild) by affording them safe shelter in a near-to-natural habitat. As the wolves are free to roam in their large enclosures, there’s no guarantee that you’ll spot them, but encounters are frequent. Advance bookings are essential. The sanctuary is best reached by private transport.
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A
Núcleo da Cidade Muralhada/Torre de Almedina
Housed in the medieval tower directly above the Arco de Almedina, this new museum displays a plaster reproduction of Coimbra’s old town layout, complete with castle. A multilingual audiovisual presentation traces the fate of the many towers that used to line Coimbra’s walls, each lit in red on the map as its story is told. There are fine city views upstairs, but the real fun is looking down through the matacães (dog-killers), big holes cut in the watchtower’s stone floor, through which hot oil was traditionally poured on unsuspecting enemies below.
reviewed
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Museum
This museum is housed in a beautiful 17th-century almshouse near the former palace. Pretty hand-painted furniture sits alongside endearing, locally carved wooden figures (charming rural scenes by Joaquim Velhinho) and a collection of typical 19th-century domestic Alentejan items. On the ground floor is an amazing display of the unique Estremoz pottery figurines – some 500 pieces covering 200 years, including lots of ladies with carnivalesque outfits, explosively floral headdresses and wind-rippled dresses. There’s even an entire 19th-century Easter Parade.
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B
Museu da Ciência
This wonderful museum occupies a centuries-old former monastery converted by Pombal into the university’s chemical engineering building. With a couple of awards under its belt since opening in 2006, it features intriguing state-of-the-art interactive science displays coexisting with 18th-century lab sinks. Don’t miss the frogs-in-underwear display, the giant glowing globe in a room paved with medieval stones, or the psychedelic insect’s-eye view of flowers. Displays are English/Portuguese bilingual.
reviewed
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Sé
The sé, built in 1189 on the site of an earlier mosque, then rebuilt after the 1249 Reconquista and subsequently restored several times following earthquake damage. The stark, fortress-like building has a multi-arched Portuguese-Gothic doorway, and some original Gothic touches left, including the nave and aisles and a dramatically tall, strikingly simple interior. There are several fine tombs, one of which is purported to be of João do Rego, who helped to settle Madeira.
reviewed
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Castelo São Filipe
The castle was built by Filipe I in 1590 to fend off an English attack on the invincible Armada. Converted into a pousada in the 1960s, its hulking ramparts afford precipitous views and its chapel is festooned in blue-and-white 18th-century azulejos depicting the life of São Filipe – you can view them through a glass wall if the door is locked. Arrive early morning and you’ll be able to watch fishermen unload their catch in the harbour below.
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C
Igreja de São João Baptista
The old town’s most striking church faces Praça da República, itself an eye-catching ensemble of 17th-century buildings. The recently restored church dates mostly from the late 15th century. It has an octagonal spire and richly ornamented Manueline doorways on its northern and western sides. Inside are 16th- and 17th-century azulejos; Gregório Lopes, one of 16th-century Portugal’s finest artists, painted the six panels hanging inside.
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Cristo Rei
Hankering for that perfect shot of Lisbon? Take the breezy commuter ferry from Terreiro do Paço Ferry Terminal to Cristo Rei. The spitting image of Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer, the 110m-high Jesus statue was erected in 1959 to thank God for sparing Portugal from WWII horrors. A lift whizzes up to an 82m platform affording breathtaking vistas over Lisbon. Nip into the gift shop for quality kitsch such as a Day-Glo Jesus statue for the mantelpiece.
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D
Rossio
Simply Rossio to locals, Praça Dom Pedro IV has 24-hour buzz. Shoe-shiners and lottery ticket sellers, hash-peddlers and office workers drift across its wavelike cobbles. And these cobbles have seen it all: witch burnings and bullfights, rallies and 1974 revolution carnations. Don’t miss Brazil’s first emperor Pedro IV high on a marble pedestal and Estação do Rossio, a frothy neo-Manueline station with horseshoe-shaped arches and swirly turrets. Trains depart here for Sintra.
reviewed
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Church
Évora’s best-known church is a tall and huge Manueline-Gothic structure, completed around 1510 and dedicated to St Francis. Exuberant nautical motifs celebrating the Age of Discoveries deck the walls and reflect the confident, booming mood of the time. It’s all topped by a cross of Christ’s order and dome. Legend has it that the Portuguese navigator Gil Vicente is buried here.
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José Maria da Fonseca
Wine-lovers shouldn’t miss the cellar tours of José Maria da Fonseca, the oldest Portuguese producer of table wine and Moscatel de Setúbal, in nearby Vila Nogueira de Azeitão. The winery is now run by the sixth generation of the family. Ring ahead to arrange a visit to the house and museum. From Setúbal, buses leave frequently to Vila Nogueira de Azeitão (20 minutes).
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Palácio de Queluz
Versailles’ fanciful cousin-once-removed, the powder-puff Palácio de Queluz was once a hunting lodge, converted in the late 1700s to a royal summer residence. It’s surrounded by queen-of-hearts formal gardens, with oak-lined avenues, fountains (including the Fonte de Neptuno, ascribed to Italian master Bernini) and an azulejo -lined canal where the royals went boating.
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Gardens
Legend says Dona Inês de Castro met her grisly end in the gardens of this private estate. It’s now a deluxe hotel, although anyone can take a turn about the gardens and track down the Fonte dos Amores (Lovers’ Fountain), which marks the spot where the king’s unwitting mistress was struck down. Also note the sequoia tree planted by English hero the Duke of Wellington.
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E
Jardim Botânico da Ajuda
Seek solace in Jardim Botânico da Ajuda northeast of Belém. Dating to 1768, Lisbon’s oldest botanical garden is ideal for a languid stroll with its gurgling fountains, manicured baroque parterres and mythical sculptures. Weave past lofty palms and bougainvillea, explore glasshouses nurturing ferns and orchids, or simply kick back on the lawns affording sublime views over Belém to the river.
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Museu Luso-Hebraico Abraham Zacuto
On a charming cobbled lane in the old town, you’ll find the country’s best-preserved medieval synagogue. Built between 1430 and 1460, it was used for only a few years, until Dom Manuel’s convert-or-leave edict of 1496 forced most Jews to do the latter. The synagogue subsequently served as a prison, chapel, hayloft and warehouse until it was classified as a national monument in 1921.
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Museu Dos Fósforos
This museum, reached via the lovely courtyard of the Convento de São Francisco, contains Europe’s largest collection of matchboxes. Amassed by local ‘phillumenist’ Aquiles da Mota Lima, the 40,000-plus matchboxes from countries around the world depict everything from bullfighters to bathing beauties, and from dinosaurs to French cuisine.
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Igreja de Santa Maria church
The town’s elegant main church, near the northern end of Rua Direita, stands on the foundations of a Visigothic temple later converted into a mosque. Begun in the 12th century but restored several times since, it dates mostly from the Renaissance. It had its 15 minutes of fame in 1444 when 10-year-old Afonso V married his eight-year-old cousin Isabel here.
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Igreja Matriz
The igreja matriz has an extraordinary, star-shaped Manueline porch decorated with twisted columns that look like lengths of knotted rope, and a simple interior, with columns topped with more stony rope, and some fine chapels, including one whose vault contains beautiful 17th-century glazed tiles showing Sts Francis and Michael killing the devil.
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H
Praça da Figueira
Praça da Figueira is framed by whizzing traffic and Pombaline townhouses. At its centre rises gallant King João I, once celebrated for his 15th-century discoveries in Africa, now targeted by pigeons and gravity-defying skateboarders – that’s justice for you. Take a seat at one of the pavement cafes for cake, sunshine and perfect snapshots of Castelo de São Jorge.
reviewed
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Gothic Church
This 13th-century Gothic church, beside the castle, was built on the site of a Moorish mosque but rebuilt by an Italian neoclassicist following earthquake damage 500 years later. However, the architect retained traces of the former church – namely the main doorway, two side chapels and Arabic-style windows in the clock tower.
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Church of St John the Evangelist
The small, fabulous Church of St John the Evangelist, which faces the Templo Romano, was founded in 1485 by one Rodrigo Afonso de Melo, count of Olivença and the first governor of Portuguese Tangier, to serve as his family’s pantheon. It’s still privately owned, by the Duques de Cadaval, and notably well kept.
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Church
Built in the 1540s, this church is the Algarve’s most important Renaissance monument, with a magnificent carved, arched doorway topped by statues of Nossa Senhora da Misericórdia, São Pedro and São Paulo. The church’s stone mason, André Pilarte, also worked on Mosteiro dos Jerónimos.
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Museu Municipal museum
Located in an 18th-century manor house just next to Igreja de Santa Maria, the town’s museum houses a small collection of paintings spanning several centuries. The highlight is a haunting portrait by Josefa de Óbidos, Faustino das Neves (1670), remarkable for its dramatic use of light and shade.
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Igreja de São Lourenço de Matos
It’s worth making a detour here, 13km northwest of Faro and about 6km south of Loulé, to visit the marvellous Igreja de São Lourenço de Matos. The church was built on the site of a ruined chapel after local people, while digging a well, had implored the saint for help and then struck water.
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