Thank you for visiting the Portugal Travel Guide, the most popular webzine for savvy travellers to Portugal.
Scroll down for a wide range of articles about where to go and what to see and do in Europe's sun-blessed south-westernmost country.
We sincerely hope you enjoy what you read here and wish you a very pleasant stay in Portugal.
The City of Vila Real
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- Published: 10 September 2016
- Written by MWH
Founded in 1272, Vila Real (which means 'royal town') is a thriving agricultural centre ideally situated on an upland plateau ringed with mountains. The city has many interesting old buildings with elegant stone façades, their portals decorated with the original owners' coats of arms, with many of their descendants still in residence.
A Brief History of Portuguese Art
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- Published: 11 September 2016
- Written by MWH
Portuguese painting first came to prominence in the 15th century. In 1428, when Jan van Eyck visited Portugal for the marriage of King João I's daughter Isabella to Philip the Good, the Duke of Burgundy, it marked the beginning of a long and close relationship with Flanders, which greatly influenced Portuguese painting.
The Águas Livres Aqueduct
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- Published: 03 August 2016
- Written by MWH
Built in the 18th century, Lisbon's aqueduct has 109 arches in all and stretches 19 kilometres (11 miles) from Caneças to the Casa de Água reservoir in the city’s Amoreiras district.
A Tower of Strength
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- Published: 12 September 2016
- Written by MWH
Along with the imposing Castle of São Jorge, Lisbon's strikingly eye-catching Tower of Belém is one of the city's most iconic edifices. With its serene riverside location in the historic centre of Belém, this robust stone sentinel guarding the River Tagus was constructed during the Age of Discovery between 1514 and 1520 in honour of Lisbon's patron saint, São Vicente.
Exploring Estremadura
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- Published: 13 September 2016
- Written by MWH
Laid out flat between the Atlantic and the Alentejo like a vast patched picnic blanket, the Estremadura region is one of the most varied in the whole of Portugal. A windswept land of lush, rolling vineyards and sprawling pine forest, not to mention long stretches of golden sandy shoreline, this idyllic garden province encompasses the Portuguese capital and stretches north well beyond Marinha Grande on Portugal's rugged Oeste coast.
Lisbon's Park of Nations
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- Published: 16 September 2016
- Written by MWH
Lisbon's Parque das Nações (Park of Nations) combines innovative, ultra-modern architecture with centuries of seafaring tradition. Built to host Expo '98, the last World Exposition of the 20th century, the area has metamorphosed into one of southern Europe's slickest commercial and residential districts.
West Side Story
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- Published: 02 August 2016
- Written by MWH
One of the jewels in Portugal's tourism crown is the rocky, windswept headland called Cabo da Roca, mainland Europe's most westerly point.
The Flying Man
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- Published: 01 September 2016
- Written by MWH
One of the most inventive characters of the 18th century must surely have been Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão, the Brazilian-born genius who created the earliest known flying machine he christened the Passarola, a fire-powered aircraft which he showcased to Portugal's king and queen in Lisbon's Terreiro do Paço square on the 8th of August 1709.
The Last Old Place
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- Published: 02 September 2016
- Written by MWH
Latin but not Mediterranean, cosmopolitan but not over-crowded, Portugal is a country where a large percentage of people live as they've always lived, in small, peaceful villages far away from busy main roads and heavy traffic.
The Making of Manuelino
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- Published: 03 September 2016
- Written by MWH
Manuelino is the style that marks the Portuguese artistic and architectural shift away from the late Gothic during the reign of King Manuel I (1469-1521).
A Long and Chequered Past
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- Published: 07 August 2016
- Written by MWH
Having existed as a country for almost nine centuries, Portugal is one of the oldest places in Europe with strong traces of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic culture to be seen across the land. Most notable of these are the collective tombs cut out of the rock at Palmela, Cascais and Alapraia near Estoril.
The Allure of the Alentejo
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- Published: 26 August 2016
- Written by MWH
With its colourful vistas, wide-open roads and dazzling whitewashed villages, the great expanse of the Alentejo is perhaps the most vivid of Portugal’s landscapes. Occupying nearly a third of the mainland, the region is most charming in springtime when wild flowers saturate the lush meadows and pastures.