The Cradle of Portugal and Its Rome: Five Monuments and Lunch in a Day

Porto

Meet the guide at the bus stops beside Trindade Metro Station in central Porto.

Porto

The guide collects the group at the meeting point in Porto and drives north to the historic towns, talking through Portugal's history and heritage on the way.

Guimaraes

A slow walk through the medieval centre of Guimarães, the town known as the cradle of Portugal. These are the streets where the story of the nation's origins is usually told, and the guide takes them at an easy pace.

Paco dos Duques de Braganca

The Palace of the Dukes is a huge granite building dominated by tall turrets. The visit goes inside, where the rooms recall the wealth and comforts of a royal household from another age. From outside it is one massive block of stone, and it is hard to walk past without wanting to see what is behind the walls.

Extra fee

Guimaraes Castle

Guimarães Castle is known as the birthplace of Portugal, and its old walls and courtyards go back to the years when the nation was being formed.

Extra fee

Braga

In Braga the group climbs to the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus, known for the long staircase that leads up to the church, with views over the city from the top. Next is the Sanctuary of Sameiro, higher in the hills: a quiet religious site with large buildings and wide views. The last visit is Braga Cathedral, the oldest in Portugal, where access includes spaces such as the chapel and the high choir.

Sanctuary of Sameiro

Struck by the view from the top of Sameiro, Fr Martinho decided to raise a monument there to Mary Immaculate and the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. A pedestal went up in 1863, topped by a statue of the Immaculate Conception carved from a single block of marble by the sculptor Emídio Carlos Amatucci. The first chapel was built and consecrated on 10 August 1877.

Bom Jesus Do Monte

The Bom Jesus do Monte sanctuary faces west over Braga, with views across the whole city and on some days as far as the ocean. Braga was the Roman Bracara Augusta, and the two histories are hard to separate. The hill was laid out as a Christian Jerusalem: a sacred mount crowned by a church built between 1784 and 1811. It belongs to the European tradition of the Sacri Monti, with a series of chapels holding sculptures of the Passion of Christ, plus fountains, allegorical statues and formal gardens. The granite buildings have whitewashed stucco fronts framed in bare stone. The Staircase of the Five Senses, with its walls, steps, fountains and statues, is the best known Baroque work on the site.

Se de Braga

"Older than Braga Cathedral" is a Portuguese saying for anything very old. It was the first cathedral built in Portugal, older than the country itself, and its walls hold more than 900 years of history and religious life. Construction began at the end of the 11th century, and Bishop Pedro consecrated it and dedicated it to the Virgin Mary on 28 August 1089. For its history, its art and its religious life, the old cathedral is one of the most visited monuments in Braga.