Hotels in Coimbra Portugal

Coimbra, the city of fado

In the central part of Portugal is the city of Coimbra, the third largest in the country. It is popular for its hanging houses and winding streets, where romanticism and nostalgia are some of its main attractions thanks to the fact that, today, the old fado still resonates in each of its corners.

Getting there is very easy thanks to the excellent communications it has either with its express train, by car or by coach. Once there, there are several train stations that facilitate access for the traveler to any of the different neighborhoods of the city, where you can find accommodation of any category, both family, business or luxury.

Neighborhoods of Coimbra

Anyone who travels to Coimbra will be able to guess that they are in the upper part of the city when they walk through narrow and steep streets, where students and elderly people live together and where some of the older people converge. monuments of Coimbra. There are numerous cheap hotels where you can rest.

In the lower part of Coimbra you can enjoy the largest commercial area, where the traveler can buy in clothing stores, hunting and grocery stores. Restaurants and small bars are also very common in this part where the accommodations, cataloged with various stars, allow the traveler to choose where to stay.

Most cheap hotels are found in the Santa Clara neighborhood, an area full of religious monuments, especially convents. In any case, hotels in Coimbra proliferate along each of its streets and all of them have the best facilities, whether the purpose of the trip is to do business or spend a few days on vacation.

Places of interest in Coimbra

Built on the banks of the River Mondego, Coimbra has many places of tourist interest, one of the best known being its old University, founded in 1290 and dominating the entire upper city. Distributed around the Patio de las Escolas, which contains different contributions of baroque style, in its surroundings the traveler will have the opportunity to stay in luxury hotels, family hotels or even cheap hotels for all those who travel with more limited resources.

In the Clock Tower, located right in front of the university, there is an interesting baroque style library as well as a viewpoint from where you can contemplate views of the entire city, including the Santa Clara convent where the tomb of Queen Santa Isabel, patron of the city and founder of the convent.

Another of the wonders that this city offers is its Botanical Garden, where you can see plants from various parts of the world. Next to it you can see the ruins of the San Sebastián aqueduct, built in the XNUMXth century.

Four-, three- and two-star hotels, even hostels that are much more affordable in terms of price, but also equipped with all the comforts, can be found very close to these and many other tourist attractions in Coimbra.

Curiosities and legends about Coimbra

One of the stories that has marked this country is that of the love between Inés de Castro and the infant Pedro, who despite being married, had encounters with her in the gardens of Quita de las Lágrimas. When he went to live with her, the infant's father, King Alfonso IV, ordered her assassinated in 1355, which caused his own son, upon ascending the throne in 1357, to order the assassins to be assassinated. of his beloved by ripping out their hearts, something that earned him the nickname "El Cruel."

Later, and under the oath of having secretly married her, Inés was recognized as the country's queen, at which point she was able to order the transfer of her body to the Alcobaca monastery, where two tombs were built. to be able to rest with his beloved forever.

Coimbra houses the Memorial of Santa Teresa, a space that was created next to the Saint's Carmel and where the traveler can contemplate objects made and used by the famous seer who was the protagonist of the “apparitions of Fatima”.

And continuing through the religious world, in Coimbra it is possible to get closer to the life of Saint Anthony of Padua and admire the curiosities of this saint in the church of San Antonio de los Olivares, a small chapel in which he was ordained as a Franciscan.