One of the oldest in Europe, Coimbra University is a place of dedicated royal patronage with a fine academic tradition stretching all the way back to the 13th century when it first opened.
Its origins are enshrined in a letter from King Dinis dated the 1st of March 1290, to which Pope Nicholas IV responded by issuing a Bull approving its establishment on the 9th of August that same year.
Classified as a World Heritage Site in 2013, it has grown and evolved over more than seven centuries in a prime hilltop location right in the centre of Coimbra, Portugal’s third-largest city (after Lisbon and Porto).
In the words of UNESCO: ‘Coimbra offers an outstanding example of an integrated university city with a specific urban typology as well as its own ceremonial and cultural traditions that have been kept alive through the ages’.
The oldest part of Coimbra University is the tight cluster of buildings known as the Paço das Escolas set around a large square (pictured above) whose most prominent feature is its landmark clock-tower visible from miles around.
It was in 1540 that King João III offered his own palace as a fixed home for the university which, since its foundation by King Dinis, had been moved from Coimbra to Lisbon and back a number of times.
The jewel in the crown is without doubt the glittering Joanina Library gifted by King João V in the early 18th century. Along with its elaborately frescoed ceilings and gilt chinoiserie bookshelves, its magnificent rooms furnished with marble and gold hold more than 60,000 books dating from the 16th to 18th centuries, many of them extremely rare.
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The grand hall known as the Sala dos Atos Grandes is lined with the portraits of all of the country’s kings from Afonso Henriques (Portugal’s first monarch) to the last, King Manuel II, with the obvious exception of the Phillipine dynasty from 1580 to 1640.
With its origins dating back to the 11th century, Coimbra University’s ornate Baroque chapel of São Miguel features a fine Manueline doorway and a stunning interior entirely lined with 17th-century azulejo tiles.
Many illustrious people have studied at Coimbra University, including Luís de Camões (author of Portugal’s most famous poem, Os Lusíadas), Saint Anthony of Pádua, Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão (inventor of the Passarola, the world’s first air balloon), the renowned philosopher Antero de Quental and the greatly esteemed playwright, Eça de Queiroz.
The academic year finishes in May with a frenzy of student festivities culminating with the Queima das Fitas ritual when hundreds of new graduates ceremoniously burn (queimar) their ribbons (fitas) as part of a centuries-old tradition.
Tourists exploring Coimbra University (indicated on the Google map below) can combine their visit with some of the city’s other top attractions, most notably Sé Velha Cathedral (one of the world’s finest Romanesque churches) and the historic Santa Cruz Church where Portugal’s first two kings, Afonso Henriques and his son Sancho I, now rest.
When in Coimbra, travellers can also immerse themselves in one of the most tragic love stories of all time, that of Pedro and Inês, Portugal’s very own Romeo and Juliet, the latter of whom was brutally murdered at Quinta das Lágrimas a short distance from the city centre.
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