Guimarães and Braga - The Historic North

Our next stop after Porto was the city of Guimarães about 50km north of Porto. It is just an average sized city in Portugal, but with a great cultural life and history, including the fact that it was Portugals first capital. We were impressed as soon as we arrived and made our way to the hostel we were staying at in the historic centre of the city.

The historic centre is a beautiful place, cobble-stoned courtyards and roads, stone buildings and traditional Portuguese architecture, meaning arches, whitewashed buildings and blue tiled walls. Pretty much all of these features and buildings within the old centre date back to the 13th century when the perimeter walls and buildings inside were built. 

Carmen walking through the historic centre of Guimarães

This however is not the oldest part of the city. The oldest part of the city dates back to the 10th century when the city was founded to help fight off the Moors. A castle was then later built in the 12th century by the first king of Portugal, Afonso Henriques, and he used the castle as a base to reconquer the rest of the country from the Moors. The castle now is in need of some repairs, mainly on the inside as it seems to have seen better days. 

Guimarães Castle

In contrast to this though, right next door is the beautifully preserved Dukes of Braganza Palace built between 1420 and 1422, although a lot of it has gone through restoration work. It is now considered a National Monument and is the most visited site in Guimarães.

Dukes of Braganza Palace

Whilst in Guimarães we were lucky enough to see Portugal play their first world cup match against Germany. We sat in a packed out courtyard with restaurants, cafes and bars on all sides each with their own big screen television to show the game. Unfortunately for us and the majority of people watching the game Portugal lost the game 4-0, a pretty bad defeat that did not do much to help the spirits of the watching Portuguese supporters. Even though they suffered a heavy defeat it did not seem to perturb the many Portuguese from having a good evening, eating and drinking till late.

There was a great atmosphere in the city, which was one of the reasons we so liked it in Guimarães, everyone was really sociable and friendly and was such a relaxed culture about the place. We wished we could have stayed more, but unfortunately we were already booked in for another place the next day, so we had to make say a sad farewell to Guimarães.

Fountain just outside the old centre of Guimarães

Braga was where we had booked our next stop, only a further 20km away from Guimarães. Braga, like Guimarães is a city with a lot of history behind it, which is evidenced by the many historic buildings (especially churches and sanctuaries). Unlike Guimarães though, Braga is a city with a lot more going on. There is a relatively new university, built only 30 years ago and there is a student feel to certain parts of the city, meaning there are more bars and restaurants about.

Our first day in Braga saw us getting our bearings by walking around the old centre where there are plenty of things to see, some of the most impressive include the cathedral, which is nearly 1000 years old, the Archbishops Palace, previosuly used to house the resident Archbishop.

Me doing Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Archbishops garden

The Cathedral

Other highlights from the first day included the castle tower and the arcada, a gathering point in Praca da Republica for locals, who go there to enjoy a coffee and Portuguese treats. This area has acted as a meeting point for nearly 300 years! We did not feel the urge to stop for a hot drink however as it was a very hot day, the temperature getting up to 41.5°C!

The Arcada

Hot temperatures!

On our second day in Braga we decided to go for a long walk to Bom Jesus do Montes, a pilgrimage site for lots of people in Portugal. It is a beautiful sanctuary located atop a hill, with several hundred steps to climb to reach the top.The surroundings are lovely, with greenery on all sides, and a tranquil atmosphere, where it is perfect to sit and enjoy the view. The only downside being that the sanctuary itself was being renovated, so it had a horrible blue cover on the outside of the building with scaffolding as well.

After having lunch we then headed up a bit more through a nice wooded park and onwards to the Salimo Sanctuary along a back road, with even more stunning views from atop the hill over the whole of Braga. We found this sanctuary a more impressive building than Bom Jesus, it looked incredible with big stone pillars overlooking the city.

Bom Jesus do Montes

Salimo Sanctuary

Looking out over Braga from Salimo Sanctuary

Heading back down into Braga was another long walk, although we did take a short cut that involved some very steep dirt tracks through the woods, which resulted in some sliding down the hill a bit, but we eventually made it safely. We were also able to see some of the local residential districts and some less desirable areas of the city, which made for an interesting comparison. Overall we really liked Braga as well, but we were pleased to be moving on as we were excited to see more of Portugal, plus we were looking forward to seeing a few Portuguese festivals elsewhere!