Chaves → Faro

01 Monument

Roman Bridge of Chaves

Ponte de Trajano

Built over the Tâmega under Trajan, this Roman bridge still links the two banks of Chaves. Look on the deck for the Padrão dos Povos, a column inscribed in 104 in the name of ten cities. Its arches, once eighteen, are no longer all visible: quays and houses have buried several of them.

02 Spa

Termas de Vidago

In Vidago, the water emerges at 10 °C, sparkling, bicarbonated and sodic, and the whole spa resort was built around it. Amid the tall trees of the park, look out for the Belle Époque façade of the Vidago Palace, a hotel opened in 1910 for spa guests. The treatments offered here target the respiratory tract, digestion and the joints.

03 Spa

Termas de Pedras Salgadas

04 Castle

Mateus Palace

Palácio de Mateus

Designed in the 18th century by Nicolau Nasoni, the Mateus Palace is reflected in the pool in front of its main courtyard. Linger over the double flight of stairs, the pinnacles and the two carved guards that enliven its Baroque façade. Behind, a cypress tunnel leads to the terraced gardens.

05 Viewpoint

Miradouro de São Leonardo de Galafura

06 Museum

Museu do Douro

In Peso da Régua, this museum occupies the former headquarters of the Upper Douro wine company. The Assembly of the Republic created it in 1997 for the wines of the demarcated region, port first and foremost. Then look out over the terraced vineyards of the Douro, for the museum sees itself as the museum of this whole territory.

07 Vineyard

Quinta da Pacheca

08 Heritage

Santuário de Nossa Senhora dos Remédios

Climb, landing after landing, the 686 steps leading to this Baroque sanctuary, to the rhythm of the fountains, chapels and obelisks along the way. On one of the nine terraces, eighteen carved kings of Israel stand motionless guard. At the very top, the granite façade, framed by two bell towers, awaits those who have made it to the end.

09 Church

Our Lady of the Assumption Cathedral, Lamego

Sé de Lamego

Look up at the square tower, a rare intact survivor of Lamego's medieval cathedral, the rest of which was rebuilt in the 16th and 18th centuries. Inside, the vaults painted by Nicolau Nasoni open a trompe-l'œil sky above the nave. Behind, a Renaissance cloister lines up its regular arches away from the street.

10 Church

Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Conceição

You'll soon understand why this Romanesque church is also called Igreja das Siglas: its stones bear one, two or three masons' marks. It belonged to a monastery founded in the 12th century by Roberto, a Premonstratensian monk from France. Beneath the cornice, the corbels line up human heads, grimacing masks, ropes and fruit.

11 Archaeology

Cava de Viriato

North of Viseu, an octagon of rammed-earth banks forms an enclosure 2000 metres in circumference, edged in places by a ditch. You can walk along six of the eight banks still standing, whose builders, Romans or Arabs, are still debated. The name of the Lusitanian chief Viriato only became attached to it in the 16th century.

12 Church

Viseu Cathedral

Sé de Viseu

Begun in the 12th century, Viseu cathedral owes its Mannerist façade between two towers to the storm of 1635, which had brought down the previous one. To the south, the Renaissance cloister by Francisco da Cremona, from around 1539, opens an Italian interlude. Look up at the vault by João de Castilho, whose ribs twist like knotted ropes.

13 Viewpoint

Miradouro do Outeirinho

14 Viewpoint

Emidio da Silva

15 Abbey

Lorvão Abbey

Mosteiro de Lorvão

A Mozarabic centre in the 10th and 11th centuries, Lorvão saw its scriptorium produce the Livro das Aves in 1184, then the Apocalipse do Lorvão in 1189. Entrusted in the 13th century to Teresa, sister of Sancho I, it became a Cistercian convent, then a psychiatric hospital until 2012. Spare a thought here for the illuminators who painted birds and visions.

16 Beach  · Family

Praia Fluvial do Pêgo Escuro

17 Monument

Cabril Dam

Barragem do Cabril

Size up the Cabril arch, a double-curvature concrete wall rising 132 metres above its foundations. Completed in 1954 close to Pedrógão Grande, it holds back the Zêzere in a long reservoir. Its curved 290-metre crest draws a crisp line between the calm water and the valley.

18 Mountain

Melriça

Two kilometres from Vila de Rei, Picoto da Melriça rises to 592 metres and bears the geodetic centre of mainland Portugal. From its TF4 marker, angle measurements were taken to all the other summits of the national network. Climb up to the pyramid marking this point, and let your gaze range towards every horizon.

19 Viewpoint

Estrada Nacional 2 (EN2) - Km 369.7 (Ponto Médio)

20 Castle

Castle of Abrantes

Castelo de Abrantes

Look up at the fortress crowning Abrantes, a link in the chain of castles guarding the middle Tagus, strengthened under Afonso III and completed under Dinis. In 1807, Junot occupied it, and the following year he took the title of Duke of Abrantes. Lowered ramparts and bastions tell of its adaptation to artillery.

21 Monument

Barragem de Montargil

Stop on the shore of Lake Montargil, the great reservoir on the Sor in the heart of the Alentejo. Completed in 1958, the clay-cored earth dam blocks the valley for 427 metres, for irrigation and electricity. Upstream, the village of Montargil lines the right bank, between sky and water.

22 Aquarium  · Family

Fluviário de Mora

Follow, tank after tank, the course of an Iberian river from source to sea in this freshwater aquarium in the Parque Ecológico do Gameiro. Fish and plants from Portuguese rivers are on show, including species unique to the peninsula. Another gallery takes you as far as the Amazon and the great lakes of Africa's Rift.

23 Castle

Castle of Montemor-o-Novo

Castelo de Montemor-o-Novo

Climb the highest hill in the area, where the walls still enclose churches and the ruins of the alcaide's palace. Sancho I granted the town its charter in 1203, and it was here in 1495 that Manuel I decided to seek the sea route to the Indies. Then look out for the pointed merlons of the Má Hora tower.

24 Archaeology

Escoural Cave

Gruta do Escoural

On the flank of an isolated cliff in the Alentejo lies the only cave in Portugal decorated in the Palaeolithic, the first prehistoric art site recognised in the country. Neanderthals sheltered here to hunt around 50,000 BC, long before the galleries were used for burials. On the walls, engraved or painted animals sit alongside geometric signs.

25 Castle

Paço dos Henriques

Step into the palace that King Dinis had built in Alcáçovas, completed in 1290 on the site of the old castle. The Treaty of Alcáçovas, which ended the War of the Castilian Succession in 1479, was signed here. Across the street, the Conchinhas garden covers its walls with inlaid shells.

26 Castle

Castle of Aljustrel

Castelo de Aljustrel

At the top of the hill of Aljustrel, the Muslim castle taken in 1234 retains only the bases of two square towers and a stretch of rammed-earth rampart. The sanctuary of Nossa Senhora do Castelo has occupied the ridge since the 14th century. Climb up by a grand staircase with landings, the countryside at your feet.

27 Museum

Basílica Real de Castro Verde

Built in the 16th century to honour the Battle of Ourique, the basilica dominates Castro Verde with its two bell towers. Behind a sober façade, nearly sixty thousand azulejos tell of the battle and the miracle of Ourique, where Christ is said to have appeared to Afonso Henriques. Save a glance for the painted wooden ceiling, which replays the same scene.

28 Museum

Museu da Escrita do Sudoeste

In Almodôvar, a former cinema preserves the Southwestern script, held to be the oldest in the Iberian Peninsula and still undeciphered. Approach the schist funerary stelae and follow with your eyes the signs engraved on them in the Iron Age. The Abóbada stela, found in the municipality, is one of the few to bear figures as well.

29 Viewpoint

Miradouro do Caldeirão

30 Archaeology

Roman ruins of Milreu

Ruínas de Estoi

At Milreu, step into the private world of a wealthy Roman estate, inhabited from the 1st century and equipped with baths. The temple raised in the 4th century later served Christian and then Muslim worship, and a 16th-century house settled on top of the ruins. Its mosaic panels made its name in the Barrocal, the inland Algarve.

31 Church

Faro Cathedral

Sé de Faro

Begun in 1251, the Sé de Faro succeeded that of Silves in 1577 as the seat of the Algarve diocese. In 1596, the English soldiers of the Earl of Essex looted and then burnt it, and few medieval stones survived. Look for them in the façade tower, the main portal and the Gothic chapels of the transept.