Coimbra: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
For most of its history Coimbra was the university town of Portugal, and the town is still built around it: the professors at the top of the hill, the students in the lanes below, the shops at the bottom. This walk climbs from the old gate to the cathedral and up to the palace courtyard and its library. It is steep the whole way, about two hours with the visits; come in the morning and book the library slot first.
A short history of Coimbra
The Romans called the settlement on a hill above the Mondego River "Aeminium". In 1131 Afonso Henriques moved his seat here, and it remained the capital of Portugal until 1255, when the capital moved to Lisbon. The Old Cathedral, which looks like a fortress, was built in the 12th century. The university was founded in 1290 in Lisbon, moved several times between the two cities, and settled in Coimbra in 1537, in the royal palace at the top of the hill. Its Joanine Library, with its gilded shelves, was built in the early 18th century, and bats that still live there eat the insects that damage the books. In 2013 the university and the surrounding quarter were declared a World Heritage Site. Coimbra fado is sung by men, students and graduates, in black gowns.
The ten best sights in Coimbra
1University of CoimbraThe old royal palace at the top of the hill; buy the ticket for the courtyard, the halls and the library together
2Joanina LibraryThe baroque library of the university; entry by timed ticket, so book the slot first
3Old CathedralA Romanesque cathedral built like a fortress, halfway up the hill
4New CathedralThe old Jesuit church near the university, made the cathedral in the eighteenth century
5Monastery of Santa CruzIn the lower town; the tombs of the first two kings of Portugal
6Machado de Castro MuseumSculpture and painting in the old bishop's palace, with Roman galleries underneath
7Science MuseumIn the eighteenth-century chemistry laboratory of the university; good for a rainy hour
8Santa Clara-a-VelhaA Gothic convent on the south bank, dug out of the river mud; visitor centre and ruins
9Santa Clara-a-NovaThe convent on the hill above, with the silver tomb of the Holy Queen
10Quinta das LágrimasThe garden of the Fountain of Tears, on the south bank; now a hotel with a public garden ticket
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Coimbra →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Coimbra:
Free walking tours in Coimbra
Up to the university
For most of its history Coimbra was the university town of Portugal, and the town is still built around it: the professors at the top of the hill, the students in the lanes below, the shops at the bottom. This walk climbs from the old gate to the cathedral and up to the palace courtyard and its library. It is steep the whole way, about two hours with the visits; come in the morning and book the library slot first.
- Arco de Almedina · The name comes from the Arabic al-madina, the city, and the gate was the way into the walled town on the hill. Beyond it starts the Quebra-Costas, the back-breaker, the steepest street of the climb.
- Old Cathedral · The cathedral was built in the twelfth century, soon after Coimbra became the capital of the new kingdom, and its battlements show it was meant to be defended. In May, during the students' festival, the serenade is sung on its steps at midnight.
- Machado de Castro Museum · The museum stands on the cryptoporticus of Aeminium, the vaulted galleries the Romans built to hold up their forum on the slope. It is named after the sculptor Joaquim Machado de Castro, born in Coimbra in 1731.
- New Cathedral · The church was built by the Jesuits from 1598, and when the Marquis of Pombal expelled the order in 1759 the bishop moved his seat here. So the new cathedral is in fact older than most of what surrounds it.
- University of Coimbra · The university was founded in Lisbon in 1290, moved between the two cities several times and settled here for good in 1537, in the royal palace. The bell in the clock tower is nicknamed the Goat, and it used to call the students to class.
- Joanina Library · Built in the 1720s under King João V, the library has walls of gilded and lacquered wood and tens of thousands of old books. A colony of bats lives behind the shelves and eats the insects at night, and the tables are covered every evening against their droppings.
Queens and lovers
Across the Mondego is the Coimbra of queens: a convent that the river swallowed, a saint in a silver tomb, and the garden where, by tradition, Inês de Castro was killed. Add a park of miniature houses for children and a footbridge named after the lovers, and that is the south bank. About three hours on foot, mostly flat, with one climb to Santa Clara-a-Nova.
- Santa Clara-a-Velha · The convent was built in the early fourteenth century, but the Mondego kept flooding it with silt, and in 1677 the nuns gave up and moved uphill. The church stood half-buried for three hundred years until it was dug out and opened again in 2009.
- Quinta das Lágrimas · By tradition Inês de Castro, the lover of Prince Pedro, was killed here in 1355 on the orders of his father, King Afonso IV. The legend says the spring in the garden came from her tears and the red in its stones is her blood.
- Portugal dos Pequenitos · The park was opened in 1940 by the doctor Bissaya Barreto, as an education in the nation for children. It has small copies of Portuguese houses and monuments, and pavilions of the former colonies that now read as a period piece.
- Santa Clara-a-Nova · The new convent holds the tomb of Queen Isabel of Aragon, the wife of King Dinis, who was made a saint in 1625. The story told of her is the miracle of the roses: the bread she was carrying to the poor turned into roses when the king asked what was in her skirt.
- Pedro and Inês Footbridge · The footbridge, opened in 2006, is built in two halves that do not meet in a straight line but miss each other in the middle, joined by a small square. It was meant as the lovers who could never quite be together.
- Parque Verde do Mondego · The park along both banks was laid out in the 2000s on land that used to flood, and it turned the town back to its river. The cafés on the lawns are the place to sit when the walk is over.
Kings, gardens and fado
The lower town is where Coimbra shops and eats, and where the first king of Portugal is buried. This route starts with him, takes a coffee in his monastery, goes through the market and up the aqueduct to the university's garden, and ends at evening with fado. About three hours with a long break; the fado shows start around six.
- Monastery of Santa Cruz · Founded in 1131, the monastery holds the tombs of Afonso Henriques, the first king of Portugal, and his son Sancho I, rebuilt in carved stone in the sixteenth century. The sacristy and the cloister are reached through the church.
- Café Santa Cruz · Since 1923 the café has occupied a former chapel of the monastery, with the Gothic vault still over the tables. It has been a meeting place of students and writers for a hundred years.
- Mercado Dom Pedro V · The market is named after King Pedro V, who reigned from 1853 and died of typhoid in 1861 at the age of 24. Upstairs and down it sells the produce of the Mondego valley, including the rice grown in its paddies.
- Aqueduct of São Sebastião · The aqueduct was built in the sixteenth century, in the reign of King Sebastião, to bring water to the upper town, on the line of an older Roman one. Its arches run beside the road up to the university.
- Botanical Garden · The garden was founded in 1772, as part of the Marquis of Pombal's reform of the university, to teach the sciences from living plants. Its terraces drop from the aqueduct towards the river, with a nineteenth-century iron greenhouse at the centre.
- Fado ao Centro · Coimbra fado is sung by men in the black capes of the students, and its songs are serenades and farewells rather than the laments of Lisbon. At a serenade in the street the custom is not to clap but to clear your throat.
Getting to Coimbra and getting around
- Coimbra-B Station · Fast trains between Lisbon and Porto stop here, 2 km north of the centre; take a taxi or the local connection into town
- Coimbra Bus Station · Express coaches to Lisbon, Porto, Viseu and the coast; ten minutes on foot from the lower town
- Porto Airport · About an hour and a quarter up the A1; Lisbon airport is about two hours south
Cheap eats in Coimbra
Coimbra eats like a student town, cheaply and in small places, with a dish of the day for €8-11. The local dish is chanfana, goat slowly stewed in red wine in a clay pot, and twenty minutes north, at Mealhada, the roadside is lined with restaurants roasting suckling pig. The sweets come from the convents: pastéis de Tentúgal and pastéis de Santa Clara, filled with egg yolk and sugar.
- Zé Manel dos Ossos · A tiny tasca in an alley off the Portagem; mains about €10-15, no reservations at lunch
- Café Santa Cruz · Coffee and a pastry under a Gothic vault, about €2-4
- Pastelaria Briosa · On the Largo da Portagem; a pastel de Tentúgal about €2
- Jardim da Manga · Simple lunches beside the Renaissance fountain behind Santa Cruz, about €8-11
- Adega Paço do Conde · Grilled meat and fish in a busy courtyard of the lower town, about €8-13
- Aeminium · Small restaurant on the steps by the Portagem; dish of the day about €9-12
- Pedro dos Leitões · Roast suckling pig at Mealhada, 20 minutes north; about €15-20 a portion
Museums in Coimbra
- Machado de Castro Museum · Sculpture, painting and the Roman cryptoporticus; about 90 minutes
- Science Museum · Instruments and cabinets of the old university, in the 1770s laboratory
- Santa Clara-a-Velha · Ruins and a visitor centre with what was found in the mud
- Conímbriga Museum · The finds from the Roman town, then the ruins themselves; half a day
- Miguel Torga House Museum · The house where the poet lived and worked as a doctor
Nature and day trips near Coimbra
- Botanical Garden · Terraces, greenhouses and a bamboo wood; an hour or more
- Parque Verde do Mondego · Lawns and cafés on both banks of the river
- Mata Nacional do Choupal · Flat poplar forest by the river, 20 minutes on foot from the centre
- Penedo da Saudade · Garden viewpoint with plaques left by graduating students
- Buçaco Forest · A walled monks' forest 30 km north, with a fantasy palace in the middle
Things to do in Coimbra with kids
- Portugal dos Pequenitos · Houses to walk into at child height; allow two hours
- Exploratório · Hands-on science centre in the riverside park
- Basófias Boat · A short cruise on the Mondego from the quay by the bridge
- Pedro and Inês Footbridge · Cross the river on the bridge whose two halves miss each other
- Conímbriga · Roman streets and mosaics to walk on, 20 minutes south
Where to eat in Coimbra
- Fado ao Centro · Coimbra fado every evening, with a short explanation before the songs
- À Capella · Fado and drinks in a former medieval chapel in the lower town
- Zé Manel dos Ossos · Come early for dinner; the queue forms before eight
- Adega Paço do Conde · Grill and wine in the lower town, lively in the evening
- Arcadas · The gastronomic restaurant of Quinta das Lágrimas; book ahead
- Jardim da Manga · A quiet terrace by the old fountain for a simple supper
Frequently asked questions about Coimbra
What is there to see in Coimbra?
The top sights in Coimbra are University of Coimbra, Joanina Library and Old Cathedral. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Coimbra?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Coimbra without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Coimbra?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Coimbra, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: Up to the university.
How do you get to Coimbra and get around?
The main ways are Coimbra-B Station, Coimbra Bus Station and Porto Airport. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Coimbra, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Coimbra that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Coimbra for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.