Roughly rectangular in shape and with a population of around ten million people, Portugal has much to offer the modern visitor – young and old alike. It’s a land of fine wine, fairy-tale castles and palaces and long sandy beaches … Read more
Crying out to be traversed and fully explored, the Minho region in the north-western corner of Portugal is the oldest and arguably the most characteristic part of the country.
The ancient city of Braga in northern Portugal has always been an important centre for culture, commerce and religion. The Romans dedicated it to their Emperor and called it Bracara Augusta, making it their Galician head-quarters in 216 BC.
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.
Approached through attractive wooded hills in the lush, green Minho region of northern Portugal, Citânia de Briteiros is one of the most impressive archaeological sites in Portugal and by far the largest and most thrilling fortified Celto-Iberian settlement in the … Read more
A place of rare natural beauty in the heart of the remote Trás-os-Montes region, the verdant Alvão Natural Park (Parque Natural do Alvão) is a major highlight for people travelling around northern Portugal.
One of the most legendary and influential figures of Portugal’s long and chequered history is Afonso Henriques, the country’s first king.
The green and pleasant north of Portugal is a place of traditional merry-making where annual festivals are ablaze with colourful costumes, lively processions and frenetic folk-dancing followed by a feast of fireworks.
One of Portugal’s lesser-known but much-savoured wines is vinho verde, so called because the grapes are picked young and the wine is mostly drunk just a year or two after bottling.
Closely associated with the beginning of the Portuguese monarchy, the national Gothic style is elegant and ethereal with strains of the Romanesque sobriety and austere grace seen in some of its earliest examples.
Generally regarded as the cradle of the Portuguese nation, Guimarães played an important role in many of the events that led to the country’s hard-fought independence. It also witnessed the birth of Afonso Henriques, Portugal’s first king.
Evoking the Middle Ages, the grand old Castelo de Guimarães still exudes much of the boldness and pride that created the kingdom of Portugal many centuries ago.