Lisbon’s Bairro Alto
Few European capitals have an Old Town quite as charming and distinctive as Lisbon’s historic Bairro Alto, an area of narrow cobblestoned streets and striking buildings of great character.
Few European capitals have an Old Town quite as charming and distinctive as Lisbon’s historic Bairro Alto, an area of narrow cobblestoned streets and striking buildings of great character.
Over the centuries, Chaves (a vibrant town in northern Portugal) has been fought over by the Romans, the French during the Peninsular War and repeated Spanish invaders.
This grey roofless edifice is all that remains of the once magnificent Gothic-style Carmo Church, which ponders silently from its privileged vantage point overlooking Rossio Square and the rest of Lisbon‘s downtown Baixa district.
The great Dominican monastery of Santa Maria da Vitória in the small town of Batalha, central Portugal, isn’t just a national shrine but one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture in Europe.
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.
One of the most decisive conflicts in the history of Portugal – the famous Battle of Aljubarrota – took place on an isolated plain in the centre of the country well over six centuries ago.