Aveiro and Coimbra - Private Tour

Why choose this Lisbon tour ?

Two cities with a thousand charms. Coimbra is known as the city of students. Aveiro, with the beauty of its canals, is called Portuguese Venice. Someone nicknamed Aveiro as “the Portuguese Venice”! We prefer to call it the Art Nouveau city. Aveiro is a city of singular beauty. It is located by the sea and the river, with its canals and the traditional boats called moliceiros, fills the city with a unique and colorful beauty. The culture and essence of the sea are in every corner. Aveiro has always been linked to maritime trade, fishing and salt production. Coimbra was the first capital of Portugal, which emphasizes its historical importance in the construction and diffusion of Portuguese language and culture, but today it is known as the student city. And, in fact, the University of Coimbra, which is a World Heritage Site, is the oldest university in the country and one of the first universities in Europe.

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What makes Aveiro and Coimbra – Private Tour a unique experience ?

Sanctuary of Fatima, optional 15-minute stop

One of the largest Marian centres in the world.

This Marian centre of pilgrimage evokes the apparitions of Our Lady to the three little shepherds Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta, which took place in 1917 and were recognized in 1930. The spot was a rural property called Cova da Iria, and it belonged to the parents of Lucia, who donated it to the Shrine. It was here that five of the six apparitions took place.

The Shrine comprises the Chapel of the Apparitions, the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima, the Prayer Area and the Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity. They complement the Shrine, the Retreat Houses of Our Lady of Sorrows and Our Lady of Mount Carmel and the Pastoral Centre of Paul VI.

The Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima was built according to a project by Dutchman Gerardus van Krieken and continued by architect João Antunes. The first stone was blessed on May 13, 1928 and the church dedicated on October 7, 1953. The following year, it was granted the title of Basilica by Pope Pius XII.

The architectural and decorative style is very simple. Inside, there are 14 lateral altars dedicated to the mysteries of the Rosary. The stained glass windows and the paintings that adorn the church are by João de Sousa Araújo; they date from 1967 and represent scenes alluding to the life of Our Lady, the Apparitions and the Message of Fatima. Those in the main chapel, representing the Evangelists, the Apparition of the Angel and scenes of Pilgrimage, were created by the Madrid company Maumejean and Sons. On the right side of the transept, the Gospel, is the tomb of Francisco, who died in 1919. On the left side, the Epistle, is the tomb of Jacinta, who died in 1920; next to her is the tomb of Sister Lucy, who died in 2005. Francisco and Jacinta Marto were canonised in the Shrine of Fatima, on May 13, 2017, on the International Anniversary Pilgrimage of the centennial of the Apparitions, presided over by Pope Francis.

Also noteworthy is the Italian-made organ, dated 1952, which consists of 152 stops and about 12,000 pipes.

It is one of the most important Marian shrines belonging to the Catholic Church in the world and one of the leading international religious tourism destinations, receiving around six million visitors a year. It was visited by Popes Paul VI (1967), John Paul II (1982, 1991 and 2000), Benedict XVI (2010) and Francis (2017). The annual pilgrimages are celebrated on the 13th of every month from May to October.

The Mosteiro de Santa Clara was built in 1314 at the orders of the Queen Saint Isabel of Aragon, replacing a small convent of nuns of the Order of St. Clare, founded in 1286. The building was completed in 1330, having been designed by the architect Domingos Domingues, who had previously worked on the Mosteiro de Alcobaça.

This convent is a fine example of the architecture of that period, being notable for the size of the church and cloister and the stone vault that covers the three naves of the church, all of which are of the same size. Because of its location on the banks of the River Mondego, the convent was subjected to frequent floods that led to the building of an upper floor and the abandonment of the almost permanently submerged ground floor. In the 17th century, the king Dom João IV commissioned the building of a new convent at a high point in the city. This new convent was given the name of Santa Clara-a-Nova, and the nuns moved there in 1677. The original convent, which became known as Santa Clara-a-Velha, was abandoned and left to fall into ruins.

At the end of the 20th century, the building was subjected to in-depth restoration work, which uncovered the original structures and led to the discovery of a vast and diversified range of treasures. Now open to the public once again, the convent offers its visitors a spacious outdoor leisure area in a tour that includes the church and the restored archaeological structures. At the Visitor Centre, besides the exhibition of the objects that were found here, laid out in accordance with their importance in the life of the convent, audiovisual media are used to present the history of the site and its restoration.

Portugal dos Pequenitos (Portugal for the Little Ones), which is considered to have been the first theme park in the country, is a pedagogical playground, where the whole family can spend a pleasant and enjoyable day learning more about the nation´s history. For the children, this is an excellent opportunity to amuse themselves entering and leaving houses and monuments built to their own size.

Here we can find only miniature reproductions of the Portuguese architectural heritage, displayed in the form of traditional houses and replicas of National Monuments from the North to the South of the country, such as the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos in Lisbon, the Convento de Cristo in Tomar, the Torre de Belém in Lisbon and Coimbra University. There is also a group of buildings designed to illustrate the ethnography and monuments of the Portuguese-speaking African Countries, Macau, India and Timor, reminding us of the Portuguese ex-colonies and providing us with the context of the project, by situating it in the historical period in which it was built. The park also contains a children´s playground and Costume, Naval and Furniture Museums, also in miniature.

The project was devised in 1940 by the doctor Bissaya Barreto (1886-1974) and built by the modernist architect Cassiano Branco (1879-1970). Bissaya Barreto was a teacher at the Faculty of Medicine of Coimbra University and was famous for having carried out a vast amount of social work in the central region of Portugal, providing much help to those in need. He created the Bissaya Barreto Foundation, which was responsible for a series of cultural activities and social work. The building of Portugal dos Pequenitos was an integral part of this project.

Count Raczinski wrote about this library in “Les Arts au Portugal” in the following terms: «it is the most beautiful, most richly decorated library that I have ever seen». In fact, the beautiful and noble interior of this sumptuous space, built between 1717 and 1728, clearly expresses the generous spirit of its founding patron. Visitors are welcomed by the king’s coat of arms above the great portico at the entrance.

Here, students and researchers may consult more than 300 thousand volumes dating from the 16th to the late 18th century, kept in the archives that cover three floors of the building.

Inside the library, the walls are covered with solid bookshelves made of exotic woods, composed of two sections, separated by a small balcony supported on columns. The painting and gilding of this wood was the work of Manuel da Silva. The main floor is divided into three rooms separated by arches that are identical to the one in the outer doorway, displaying the insignia of the old University faculties. The ceilings were painted with a trompe l´oeil effect by António Simões Ribeiro and Vicente Nunes, creating a false perspective and giving the illusion of a greater height.
On one of the walls at the back of the room, there is a large portrait of the founder, Dom João V, dated 1730.

Where the second king of Portugal was crowned.

Coimbra (Aeminium, in Roman times) is an Episcopal seat since the 5th century, succeeding neighbouring Conímbriga. Despite its long history, there is no mention of a cathedral until the construction of the Santa Maria de Coimbra Cathedral, which began in 1164 by initiative of Bishop Miguel Salomão. It was consecrated in 1184, despite the rest of the building not yet being finished and in 1185 the second Portuguese king, D. Sancho I, was crowned there. It is the only Portuguese Romanesque cathedral from the time of the Reconquest, which survives relatively intact to this day.

The design of the building is attributed to Master Roberto, of French origin, who directed the construction of the Lisbon Cathedral at the same time and visited Coimbra sporadically. Management of the work was assigned to Master Bernardo, also French, later replaced by Master Soeiro, an architect who later worked on other churches in the diocese of Porto. The building comprises three naves, a slightly protruding transept, a lantern-tower above the cross, and a tripartite sanctuary. Its construction marks a break from the Romanesque cathedrals built until then in the country (Braga and Porto) and the beginning of a new typology called Cathedrals of the South (Coimbra, Lisbon and Évora).

The cloister started being erected in 1218, during the reign of D. Afonso II, being one of the first Gothic works built in Portugal. Larger than normal, it was necessary to destroy a part of the hillside for its construction. It occupies a quadrangular area from the third section of the nave and beyond the perimeter of the sanctuary. It is made up of a vaulted floor and the arcades comprise double pointed arches, set in fine twinned colonnades and with portholes above.

During works in the 16th century some innovations were introduced to the building, including Renaissance doorways, specifically a door known as the Porta Especiosa (Beautiful Door), which is the masterpiece of the architect João de Ruão and the sculptor Nicolau de Chanterenne, inspired by the Italian renaissance.

Inside, it is worth mentioning the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, also of João de Ruão, and the Chapel of St. Peter, attributed to Nicholas de Chanterenne. In the main chapel, the gilded altarpiece in flaming Gothic style is the work of Flemings Olivier de Gand and Jean d’Ypres. The chancels, decorated with floral and animalistic themes, are the richest iconographic example of Romanesque style in Portugal. The absence of human figures and biblical scenes is probably due to the fact that these were the work of Mozarabic artists who had settled in Coimbra.

There are several tombs of the Gothic period (13th- 14th centuries) in the side aisles, one of the most notable being that of D. Vataça (or Betaça) Lascaris, a Byzantine lady who arrived in Portugal at the beginning of the 14th century, accompanying D. Isabel de Aragon, who was to marry King Dinis.

The capital of the Ria, a vast lagoon where the freshwater of the River Vouga joins with the sea, Aveiro is intersected by canals, genuine streets of water, along which can be seen gliding the brightly coloured boats known as barcos moliceiros. Originally founded in the time of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Aveiro is now one of the most interesting cities on the Portuguese coast.

Due to the large numbers of web-footed birds that once inhabited this lagoon area, the city’s first name was Aviarium.

D. João I (r. 1383-1433) gave Aveiro to his son, Prince Pedro, who ordered the city’s first walls to be built, although these have since disappeared. Later, D. João II (r. 1481-1495), gave the city to his sister, Princess Joana, a lay sister at the Convento de Jesus, which now houses the Museu de Aveiro.

In the 16th century, the development of the salt industry, agriculture and fishing and the first cod-fishing expeditions to the distant Newfoundland in 1501 brought Aveiro a period of great prosperity, which led to its being awarded a charter by D. Manuel I in 1515.

However, in the winter of 1575, heavy storms destroyed the deep channel that had once linked the Ria to the sea, this was where the great ocean-going vessels would dock in Aveiro thereby destroying the maritime trade, fishing and salting businesses.
Barra Nova was built in the 19th century. Being opened to the ocean in 1808, it gave rise to the formation of a wide channel measuring roughly 264 metres across and about 4 to 6 metres deep. This channel opened the Ria to the sea and restored the source of the region’s life and its very survival.

The Ria is linked to Aveiro via three canals: the Canal das Pirâmides (marked at its entrance by two stone pyramids), which extends into the Canal Central, the Canal de São Roque, which marks the limits of the city to the north-west and separates it from the salt-pans; and the Canal dos Santos Mártires (or the Canal do Paraíso) which leads to the south-west.

Using the Canal Central as the city’s main axis, we suggest two tours of Aveiro:
– On the Left Bank, begin by admiring the graceful Art Nouveau buildings, which are beautifully reflected in the canal, stroll through the Mercado do Peixe (Fish Market), wander around the Beira Mar district and along the canal banks and savour the gentle sea breeze.
– On the Right Bank, visit the city museum housed in the Convento de Jesus. Monuments and churches, as well as the hustle and bustle of city life taking place under the diffuse light of the Ria, all add to the charm of this coastal city.

Evidently, all visitors will also want to discover more about the Ria de Aveiro. The two suggested itineraries will introduce you to the labyrinth of canals, the white sand dunes by the sea and the vast expanses of salt-marshes with their pyramids of white salt.
If you enjoy nature trekking, the Reserva Natural das Dunas de São Jacinto is truly irresistible.

Marian cult and People of the Sea.

The primitive Church of Nossa Senhora da Misericórdia was consecrated in 1464 and was connected to the Dominican convent of the same name. Between the 16th and the 17th centuries it underwent work, and the side aisles were converted into devotional chapels. In 1834, the convent was transformed into military barracks and destroyed by a fire a few years later.

In 1835, the church – with its beautiful baroque portal framed by four Salomonic columns, a frieze with floral decoration and the coat of arms of the Infante D. Pedro, Duke of Coimbra – was converted into the parish of Our Lady of Glory, and in 1938 became the Cathedral of the Diocese of Aveiro with the Bull of Pope Pius XI.

Inside, the side-chapels preserve items of great value. In the chapel of the Visitation an excellent altarpiece dating from 1559 can be admired, which represents the Virgin and Saint Elizabeth in a very original composition. In the chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary there is a beautiful image of its Patron, dating from the end of the 16th century, as well as several 17th century paintings, representing the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries. In an arched window in the original wall there is a Gothic image of the Virgin and Child, made of alabaster, which originally stood in a niche outside the church. The Baroque organ of 1754 is now defunct, but in 2013 a new organ, built in Hungary, was placed in the transept.

In the churchyard that opens out in front of the church, there is a beautiful Gothic cross from the end of the 15th century, set on a 17th Century pedestal. Above it is a poignant figure of Christ on the cross, whose arms end in fleur-de-lys. The chancel, of great iconographic value, is decorated with the steps of the Passion.

Tour Description & Additional Info:

Specialized infant seats are available
Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Children must be accompanied by an adult
Dress code is smart casual
Operates in all weather conditions, please dress appropriately

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