SHORT DESCRIPTION OF COIMBRA

The city

This city holds a special place in the hearts of all the Portuguese. Rich in its history and said to be the oldest seat of learning in Portugal, with a University founded on the 13th of August in 1290 by King Dinis. This makes it one of the oldest in the world. Six of Portugal’s Kings were born here and in 1139 until 1256 it was the chosen capital of the country. The original name in the Roman period was Aeminium, and it later developed under the influence of the greater nearby town of Conimbriga. This latter place is now a large archaeological site of great interest with a museum to display the findings from the diggings. At first sight the town appears more devoted to commerce than learning but the skyline above the lower part of the city suggest its real purpose.

The history

The most ancient proofs of occupation date from the II Th. Century, in the romaine domain period. At those times, Coimbra was called Aeminium (Emínio) and was a satellite city of the important city of Conímbriga, 15 Km to south. There are vestiges of the romaine occupation in the city, as the forum (centre of the civitas’ life), constructed on a large platform in spectacular criptoportic, where we have now the National Museum, locate in the Upper town.

After having been romaine, Coimbra was invaded by the Arabians on 711, having been Islamic during more than three centuries.

In 1064, the definitive reconquest by the troops of Fernando Magno announced the beginning of a new period in the History of Coimbra.

The King D. Afonso Henriques transferred to Coimbra the capital of the Kingdom 1139 until 1260. In the XII Th. Century Coimbra was also an important commercial warehouse; the great part of the commercial changes took place in Mondego River, which enabled a privileged link to the Port of Figueira da Foz.

We should also refer the 1st link between the two margins of Mondego River. There are no certainties in relations to the existence of a romaine bridge, but it is through that the one that may have followed, sponsored by D. Afonso Henriques, resulted from this one. This bridge was reformed in D. Manuel’s reign, in 1513, but was demolished in 1875, not for threatening to ruin, but for not enabling the passage of the barks. The one made in iron, became obsolete and dangerous, having been finally substituted by another one in concrete (the actual one) on the 30th October 1954.

The city of Coimbra has maintained, since the reconquest, the same aspect until the XVIth century. Any changes that may have occurred almost haven’t modified the general configuration of the city.

The wall that surrounded the city had five gates: the Sun one, from the end of XIth century; the Almedina one; the Belcouce one, more near to the river; the Betrayal one and the New one, constructed at the end of the XIIth century, to serve the Monastery of Santa Cruz.

In the period of Discoveries, the city of Coimbra was already clearly divided in two areas: Almedina (equivalent to the Upper town, where lived the clergy, the local nobles and some people) and the ‘arrabalde’ (equivalent to the Downtown, constituted in great part by the people, artisans and traders).

In relation to the area of the city located on the other margin of Mondego River, Santa Clara, it is an inhabited place for 2000 years. Based on the archeological findings found on Gruta dos Alqueves, we can say that Men occupied this area since the Neolithic Period. During the roman occupation we know that Coimbra was traversed by the famous route Bracara-Olisipo, that was for many time the fundamental axis that linked North and South of the country. The population from Santa Clara have always been victim of the River’s inundation, whose effects are evident in the Monastery of Santa Clara a Velha.

Upper town

The city that is today Coimbra has its primitive nucleus on the top of the Upper town. This hill, 160 meters high, offered good natural conditions for defense and was also a compulsory point of passage between the North and the South.

The ancient wall marked the trace of some streets: Couraça dos Apóstolos and Fernandes Tomás Street. The Almedina Tower was the main gate of the city.

The University dominates the hill, where we can see buildings from different periods, as the Paço das Escolas (XVIth century) and belonging to the 40’s University city, whose architecture is similar to the nazi Germany’s or the fascist Italy’s one.

This area is the most monumental of the city, where we can find some of the most important buildings from the origins of the city.

Downtown

The Downtown includes, essentially, the Middle Age “Arrabalde”, i.e., the area outside the city walls where lived the people, the traders and the artisans.

The Praça Velha (Plaza) was the centre of the life of the city from where started the development of the “Arrabalde”.

The very toponymy of the Downtown was almost enough to characterize it, showing how the different professions were grouped in the same streets. Some names: Shoemakers Street, Mat Sellers Street, Oilmen Street, Ceramics Street, etc.

Even today, the Downtown is the main commercial area. Two large streets where the great part of the buildings are from the XVIIIth and XIXth century, concentrate the most sophisticated stores and the bigger esplanade.

We can also find in the Downtown one of the most important monuments of Coimbra, the Santa Cruz Church (first constructed on the XIIth century – Romanic style – but which actual body is, essentially, from the XVIth century – Renascent style), where we can find the body of the first King of Portugal, D. Afonso Henriques. In this area we can also find other buildings with historic value, as the Church of S. Bartolomeu (XVIIth century, Baroque style) and the Church of S. Tiago (XIIth century, Romanic style).

Sofia Street

In 1535-36 Frei Brás de Braga orders the construction, in soils belonging to Santa Cruz Monastery, of a street dedicated to Saint Sofia, beginning in the churchyard of the Monastery, where were constructed some University colleges, natural complement of the University. The constructions started in 1535: S. Miguel and Todos os Santos College (1535), Nossa Senhora do Carmo College (1541), S. Bernardo College (1541), Nossa Senhora da Graça College (1542), S. Pedro College (1543), Arts College (1548), S. Tomás College (1561) and S. Jerónimo College (1565). Also in this street were S. Boaventura College and S. Domingos Covent.

With the triumph of liberalism and the subsequent extinction of Religious Orders and the sell of their goods, great part of these establishments were sold to particulars, accelerating, this way, its degradation and destruction.

From all of them, we can only find in good state of conservation, maintaining its original look: Carmo, Graça and S. Pedro Colleges.

This street, with an unpopular width for the period, was considered, at those times, the bigger in Portugal and one of the bigger ones in Europe, too.

Santa Clara

Santa Clara is a very interesting place, also due to the possibility of observing from there the whole of the city of Coimbra, in the other margin.

The landscape and the proximity to Coimbra have lead to the construction of some religious houses: S. Francisco Covent, Santa Clara-a-Velha Covent and Santa Clara-a-Nova Covent.

This area, as other areas of the city, is characterized by a huge monumentality. So, there exist not only the monuments I’ve referred, but also other locals worth pointing out, such as Queen Santa Isabel Paços and Portugal dos Pequeninos.

Santa Clara is also characterized by many noble farms (Quintas) that were established. Today, great part of them are abandoned, as Quinta da Copeira, or uncharacterized, as Quinta das Canas, but are part of the landscape. It is worth contemplating and visiting the famous and romantic Quinta das Lágrimas, forever linked to the tragic love story of D. Pedro and D. Inês de Castro.

However, the History and legend of Coimbra are also full of dramas and tragedies. The biggest one is that of Inês de Castro, passed in Mondego fields in the margin of Santa Clara. D. Pedro fell in love with her and they lived their love in this green and calm landscape, indifferent to the scandal they caused. Nevertheless, the political reasons accompanied the moral and religious ones.

It was feared that this passion would be harmful for the country, putting away D. Fernando as future king, and considering legitimate the children that once had Inês de Castro. Those were the fundaments that lead D. Afonso IV to order her death. These loves will forever be linked to Lágrimas (Tears) Fountain, in the Farm with the same name, in Santa Clara.

Monuments

Sé Velha
Coimbra Old Cathedral, of the Romanesque style, dates back from the reign of King Afonso Henriques. This was a period of major splendour in the Coimbra Romanesque workshops but also of decadence and stagnation of structural and decorative solutions.

Sé Nova

The Coimbra New Cathedral, an old Jesuit College and Church, was founded in 1541 and remained in the Order until the government of the Marquês de Pombal (Pombal Marquis), who determined the delivery of the temple to the diocese after the expulsion of the Jesuits from Portugal, in 1759.

The New Cathedral shows the artistic conceptions of the Counter-Reform of which the Jesuits were one of the main promoters. The project is due to Baltazar Álvares, an Order architect who started the construction in 1598. The main façade impresses by its greatness, and follows the Jesuitical typology with a tripartite entrance and an ambitious organisation of the upper motifs, ending in an irregular triangular pitched roof, creating a scenographic effect.

University

Coimbra, with a university founded in 1290, is popularly known as the 'Oxford of Portugal'. Well hardly, though it is indubitably ancient, does have some fine buildings and suffers under the same curse of traffic experienced by England's Oxford.

The most dramatic of the university's ancient treasures is the Joao V library with superb frescoes and tables of rosewood and ebony etched with Chinese designs in gold.
University library (King John Library) is breathtaking. There are three large rooms decorated with engraved wood lacquered in red, green and gold. These rooms are connected by high archways bearing the insignias of the old faculties at the tops. The walls are totally covered by solid bookshelves made of exotic woods and divided into two sections separated by a narrow balcony supported by elegant columns. Ladders which fit into the book shelves provide access to the upper levels. This library now functions as a museum with a collection of 300,000 volumes. Use can be obtained by special authorisation.

From the distant past the students still indicate the faculty they belong to by the colour of a ribbon they attach to their gowns. Every year in May when the academic year ends they ceremonially burn these ribbons and duly celebrate. This event is named "Queima das Fitas". The students also reflect their optimistic attitude to life and culture by singing a lighter and happier version of their traditional national songs and these are generally referred to as "Fados da Coimbra".

Santa Cruz Monastery

Founded in 1131 outside the protecting walls of Coimbra, it was the most important monastic house of the Portuguese monarchy. Dedicated to the Order of St. Augustine, the Monastery was granted numerous papal privileges and royal grants, which allowed the accumulation of a considerable patrimony, at the same time as it consolidated its position on the politico-institutional and cultural scene. Its school was essential on medieval times and also a meeting point for the intellectual and power elites. Its scriptorium was responsible for the propaganda machine of King Afonso Henriques, being not strange at all his decision to be buried exactly in Santa Cruz of Coimbra.

Nothing remains of the early Romanesque Monastery. It is known that it had only one nave and a high tower in the façade, as typical of the Augustine-Romanesque constructions, but none of those elements subsisted. In the first half of the 16th century, the Monastery was completely reformed by King Manuel's order, this monarch having assumed the Monastery tutelage.

Santa Clara Velha Monastery
Founded in 1286 by Dom Mor Dias, the first works there is a record of refer to the construction of a shelter ensemble for the nuns of the Order of the Poor Claras. In 1314, the Santa Clara-a-Velha Monastery was founded again by Queen Elisabeth of Aragon, and thus started the construction of the Monastery as it exists nowadays. In that same year of 1314, Domingos Domingues, contractor-master of the Alcobaça's cloister, assumed the leadership of this workshop and the church started being built. Having died probably in 1325, Estevão Domingues took his place and became responsible for the conclusion of the church and the beginning of the cloisters' works around 1326-27. The church was consecrated in 1330 and the great floods of the Mondego River occurred one year later. Works, however, didn't stop and, in 1333, the hospice was finished. During the centuries that followed the constant floods of the Mondego aggravated the progressive silting-up of the building and, in the early-16th century, the situation became unbearable. 1617 saw the inevitable abandon and the consequent transference of the community to Santa Clara-a-Nova.

Botanical Gardens

Created by the Marquis of Pombal, they are considered the most beautiful botanical gardens of Portugal. Besides the many rare species which deserve to be admired, there is also a vast collection of ornamental features such as statues and fountains.
Portugal dos Pequeninos

Children will like to visit the Portugal dos Pequeninos ("Portugal for the Little Ones"), a park with child-sized models of typical Portuguese houses, mansions, temples and palaces.