Coimbra was Portugal's capital from 1131 to 1255 and has the oldest university in the Portuguese-speaking world, founded in 1290 and settled here for good in 1537 and still fills the hilltop above the Mondego river. The university, with its Baroque library, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the steep lanes below it lead down through the old town to the river.
The Portugal page covers the Joanina Library and how its timed ticket works. This page covers the rest of the university hill, the Old Cathedral, the monastery where the first two kings are buried, Coimbra's own fado, the flooded convent and the estate of the Pedro and Inês legend across the river, a miniature park for children and the Roman city of Conímbriga nearby.
Coimbra is a university town first: term time is lively, and for eight days from the first Friday of May the Queima das Fitas student festival takes over the city.
Walk through the Royal Palace and St Michael's Chapel
Paço das Escolas, University of Coimbra
1.5 to 2 hoursNo booking needed
Walk the ceremonial halls of Portugal's first royal residence, then see a chapel organ of some 2,000 pipes.
What it is
The courtyard at the top of the hill, the Paço das Escolas, was a palace long before it was a university. The building began as a fortress for the city's governor under Islamic rule, built at the end of the 10th century, and in 1131 it became the home of Afonso Henriques, the first king. The university settled here for good in 1544. St Michael's Chapel has a 16th-century interior, and its grand Iberian organ was installed between 1733 and 1737; the chapel still hosts services and concerts.
How to do it
Both open daily from 9:00 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 17:00. The University and Science Museum ticket, €12.50, covers them without the Joanina.
Good to know
Official ceremonies take precedence, and the university tower is closed.
See 18th-century science at the Laboratorio Chimico
Laboratorio Chimico, University of Coimbra
1 to 1.5 hoursNo booking needed
See the chemistry laboratory Pombal gave the university for the new sciences, now the main building of a prize-winning science museum.
What it is
When the Marquis of Pombal reformed the university in 1772, he also gave it an astronomical observatory, a botanical garden, a natural history gallery and a physics cabinet. The Laboratorio Chimico, a short walk from the palace courtyard, houses the university's Science Museum, which opened its first phase there in 2006 and won the Micheletti Prize, a European award for science and industry museums, in 2008. Its permanent exhibition, Secrets of Light and Matter, draws on objects from all the university's scientific collections.
How to do it
The same ticket covers the Cabinet of Curiosities, the Mineral Gallery and the Academic Museum on student life. They open daily from 9:00 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 17:00.
Good to know
From January 2027, the Cabinets of Curiosities and Physics close on the first Monday of each month.
Escape to the Botanical Garden and its bamboo woods
Botanical Garden of the University of Coimbra
1 to 2 hoursNo booking needed
Walk from formal terraces and an iron-and-glass greenhouse down into a bamboo forest in a valley where a stream once ran.
What it is
The university's Botanical Garden was created in 1772 on the initiative of the Marquis of Pombal, on land of the old College of São Bento, and spreads over 13 hectares in the city centre. The formal part has plants grouped by family and a central square with a fountain; the 19th-century greenhouse was restored by the architect João Mendes Ribeiro and reopened with tropical plants, orchids and carnivorous species. Below lies the Mata, an arboretum with a collection of 51 eucalyptus species.
How to do it
The garden opens every day, 9:00 to 20:00 from April to September and 9:00 to 17:30 from October to March. The university runs guided tours of the garden and of the greenhouse, at €10 each, booked by email.
Good to know
In must30's view it is the best place in Coimbra to cool down on a hot afternoon.
Step inside a cathedral that looks more like a castle, the only Portuguese Romanesque cathedral of the Reconquista to survive largely intact.
What it is
The Sé Velha stands halfway down the hill, with high crenellated walls, few narrow windows and thick buttresses, built in warlike times on a sloping site. Work began after the Battle of Ourique in 1139, when Afonso Henriques had just proclaimed himself king; the cathedrals of Lisbon, Porto and Braga were heavily remodelled. Next to the church is a Gothic cloister, begun in 1218.
How to do it
Inside, massive columns carry capitals carved with leaves and animals, and the main chapel holds a carved wooden Renaissance altarpiece by Olivier de Gand and Jean d'Ypres. Walk round to the north side to see the Porta Especiosa, a Renaissance portal of the 1530s attributed to João de Ruão.
Good to know
In May the steps outside fill for the students' midnight fado serenade.
See the tombs of Portugal's first kings at Santa Cruz
Praça 8 de Maio, lower town
1 hour, plus coffee next doorNo booking needed
See the tombs of Portugal's first king and his son in a National Pantheon, then have a coffee under church vaults next door.
What it is
The Monastery of Santa Cruz was founded in 1131 just outside the city walls and was the most important religious house of the early Portuguese monarchy; Afonso Henriques and Sancho I chose to be buried here. Little remains of the Romanesque building: King Manuel I paid for a rebuilding from 1507, and in 1530 the two royal tombs were moved to the main chapel, in new sculpted settings by Nicolau Chanterene.
How to do it
Look for the ribbed vaults and tiled walls of the nave, the Cloister of Silence with its reliefs of the Passion, and the sacristy with paintings by Grão Vasco. Café Santa Cruz is a café-restaurant in a former parish church begun around 1530, a National Monument since 1921.
Good to know
In must30's view, a coffee there is the right end to the visit.
Hear the city's own student fado, usually sung by men in academic capes to classical guitar and the Coimbra guitar.
What it is
Coimbra fado is different from Lisbon's: the university's students adopted it, and the Coimbra guitar is a local version of the Portuguese guitar. Its great names include the guitarists Artur Paredes and his son Carlos Paredes, and the students' union still has a fado section that teaches it.
How to do it
The university's own show takes place in the Casa das Caldeiras, the university's old boiler house: 45 minutes with a welcome drink, an introductory film and live Coimbra fado and song, at 17:00, for €15. In must30's view it is the easiest way to hear Coimbra fado outside May, when students sing it on the Old Cathedral steps.
Good to know
Check the days on the university's site, since the programme lists Fridays and pauses in August.
Walk the floor of the flooded Santa Clara-a-Velha convent
Santa Clara, left bank of the Mondego
1 to 1.5 hoursNo booking needed
Walk the floor of a Gothic church and cloister that spent three centuries under mud and water.
What it is
Santa Clara-a-Velha is on the left bank of the Mondego. Queen Isabel, later a saint, refounded the convent of Poor Clares in 1314 and was buried here in 1336, but the river flooded it from 1331 onwards; the nuns raised the floors and, around 1612, built a new floor halfway up the church, until in 1677 they left for Santa Clara-a-Nova on the hill above. From 1991 an archaeological project built a watertight barrier round the ruins, drained them and uncovered the lower church and the cloister.
How to do it
In 2009 the site reopened with an interpretation centre that displays the objects found in the excavations.
Good to know
It opens Tuesday to Sunday: 10:00 to 19:00 from 1 April to 14 October, last entry 18:15, and 9:00 to 17:00 the rest of the year, last entry 16:30.
Find the fountain said to spring from the tears of Inês de Castro, with red algae on the stones as her blood.
What it is
Portugal's great love story ends here. Prince Pedro, son of King Afonso IV, fell for Inês, a lady in waiting, in the 1340s; in 1355 his father had her killed, and when Pedro became king in 1357 he had her killers executed and, legend says, made the court kiss her dead hand. Folk tradition places her murder at this estate across the river, where the fountain is the Fonte das Lágrimas, the Fountain of Tears.
How to do it
Nearby is the Fonte dos Amores, where Pedro is said to have sent her letters along a water channel. The estate's 18th-century palace is now a five-star hotel, set in 12 hectares of gardens with giant sequoias and a Moreton Bay fig.
Good to know
Before you go, check whether the gardens are open to visitors who are not hotel guests.
Let children walk into scaled-down copies of Portugal's typical regional houses and main monuments.
What it is
Portugal dos Pequenitos, across the bridge from the old town, is a park of child-sized buildings, opened on 8 June 1940. It was the idea of Fernando Bissaya Barreto, a professor at Coimbra's medical school, and was designed by Cassiano Branco, one of the big names of Portuguese modern architecture. Other areas show the monuments and folk culture of Brazil, Macau, India, Timor and the Portuguese-speaking countries of Africa.
How to do it
Adults get a quick lesson in the country's regional styles. Hours are 10:00 to 19:00 from 1 March to 15 October and 10:00 to 17:00 the rest of the year.
Walk among mosaic floors around a garden with a pool and water jets in one of the largest Roman towns excavated in Portugal.
What it is
Conímbriga is about 16 km south of Coimbra and has been a National Monument since 1910. A wall about 1.5 km long still rings much of it, and inside you walk among the forum, baths, shops and houses. The highlight is the Casa dos Repuxos, the House of the Fountains, a 2nd-century mansion whose mosaics are protected under a roof; the Casa de Cantaber, another great house, is close by. The town was sacked by the Sueves between 465 and 468, and its bishop moved to Aeminium, the Roman name of Coimbra.
How to do it
The site museum, open since 1962, displays everyday objects found there. It opens daily from 10:00 to 18:00, with the ticket office closing at 17:15, and a ticket costs €10.
Good to know
Bring water and a hat: there is little shade among the ruins.
See the Joanina Library at the University of Coimbra
Coimbra
3 hours for the full university ticketTimed entry
Three gilded baroque rooms of carved shelves and tens of thousands of old volumes, with a colony of bats that eats the insects at night.
What it is
The Joanina is the baroque library of the University of Coimbra, built between 1717 and 1728 under King João V. The visit also takes in the old academic prison below.
How to do it
It is the one part of the university visit with a fixed time. The €16.50 ticket covers the Joanina, the Royal Palace, St Michael's Chapel and the Science Museum, and its printed time is for the library only. Hours are 9:00 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 17:00, last entries 12:40 and 16:40.
Good to know
Be punctual: the slots are strict. The ticket is not refundable, and photos are not allowed in the main hall.
Coimbra is on the main Lisbon to Porto railway: fast trains stop at Coimbra-B, on the edge of town, with a connection to the central Coimbra station. By road it is just off the A1 motorway, roughly halfway between the two cities.
Getting around
The old town is compact but steep: the university sits at the top and the river at the bottom, linked by stairs and narrow lanes. Walk down rather than up when you can. Santa Clara-a-Velha, Quinta das Lágrimas and Portugal dos Pequenitos are across the bridge on the left bank.
How many days
In must30's view, two days are right: one for the university hill and the old town, one for the left bank and Conímbriga. A single day covers the university and the cathedral if you book the Joanina early.
When to go
Spring and autumn are mild and the university is in session. Summer can be very hot in the valley. The Queima das Fitas in May brings a midnight fado serenade on the Old Cathedral steps, a student parade and crowds, which is great fun but fills the hotels.
Questions travellers ask
Is Coimbra worth a day trip from Lisbon or Porto?
Yes. Fast trains take you there in a couple of hours from either city, and a day covers the university, the Old Cathedral and the Santa Cruz monastery. An overnight stay adds the left bank, Conímbriga and an evening of fado.
Which university ticket should you buy?
The full ticket adds the Joanina Library to the Royal Palace, St Michael's Chapel and the Science Museum, with a fixed time for the library. A cheaper ticket covers the same sites without the Joanina. Neither is refundable.
What is Coimbra fado?
A form of fado tied to the university, usually sung by men in student capes and played on the Coimbra guitar, a local version of the Portuguese guitar. Its roots go back to the lyric poetry of the medieval troubadours.
How do you get to Conímbriga from Coimbra?
Conímbriga is about 16 km south of Coimbra, near Condeixa-a-Nova. Driving is easiest, about 20 minutes; without a car, a taxi from Coimbra is the simplest option.
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