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Travel Tips

Portugal

Portugal

 
From north to south
 
Marco de Canavezes: 
- New church by Portugese architect Alvaro Siza: "One of Siza's masterpieces is undeniably the church in Marco de Canavezes, a space where he assigns a sacred dimension, as it were, to the light".

Braga:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            - In the 12th century this town became the seat of the archbishops of Portugal and the religious capital of the country.                                                                                                         
- The Baroque cathedral Sé is very richly decorated. Special walls of tiles (azulejos) with biblical scenes. The church houses a museum with church treasures, gifts by believers, golden crosses etc.                                                                                                                                           
- Bom Jesus do Monte is a Portuguese sanctuary in the surroundings of the city of Braga, in northern Portugal. Its name means Good Jesus of the mountain. The Sanctuary is a notable example of pilgrimage site with a monumental, Baroque stairway that climbs 116 metres (381 feet).
 
Viseu:                                                                                                                                                                 
- Cathedral.
 
Coimbra:                                                                                                                                             
- Romanesque cathedral.
 
Batalha:                                                                                                                                              
- Monastery of Santa Maria da Vitória, on the Unesco list of world heritage, late Gothic intermingled with the Manueline style. It amazes the onlooker with its profusion of gables, spires, pinnacles and buttresses. It has become a symbol of national pride.
 
Tomar:                                                                                                                                                         
- Capela da Conceição: beautiful Renaissance church. 
- Christ monastery with highly decorated windows in Manueline style.
 
Alcobaça:                                                                                                                                          
- 12th-century monastery, one of the first Gothic monuments in Portugal. The façade was renewed in Baroque style.
 
Mafra:                                                                                                                                                                     
- Monastery in Baroque style.
 
Lisboa:                                                                                                                                                 
- Medieval cathedral.          
- São Vicente de Fora: manieristic church.   
- Monastery Mosteiro dos Jerónimos in Manueline style (late Gothic).                                            
- National tile museum, in the cloisters of the Madre de Deus church.
 
Évora:                                                                                                                                                     
- 14th-century cathedral. Beautiful sculptures.
 
Almansil:
- São Lourenço church, 18th-century, with beautiful azulejo (tile) dome.
 
Madeira:
- Museu de Arte Sacra: The Museum of Sacred Art occupies an old bishop's house in the center of town. Many of its exhibitions came from island churches, some of which are no longer standing. Its most interesting collections are a series of paintings from the Portuguese and Flemish schools of the 15th and 16th centuries. The paintings are on wood (often oak); an outstanding example is the 1518 Adoration of the Magi. A rich merchant commissioned it and paid for it with sugar. A triptych depicts St. Philip and St. James, and there's an exceptional painting called Descent from the Cross. Ivory sculpture, gold and silver plate, and gilded wood ornamentations round out the collection.