Braga, Portugal

Braga

Braga is one of the oldest cities in Europe, founded in 16 BC as “Bracara Augusta” in honour of the Roman emperor Augustus. Located in the heart of the Minho region, Braga is one of Portugal’s main religious centres, with 49 churches and chapels. It is known as the city of archbishops, the city of youth and the Portuguese Rome. Today Braga is a highly dynamic city with a strong economy across commerce and services, education and research, construction, information technology and new technologies, tourism, and various branches of industry and craftsmanship. Braga has a significant impact on the software industry and is widely regarded as Portugal’s Silicon Valley. It is described as the retail capital of Portugal, with the country’s largest pedestrian area offering a wide variety of shops — both local and international — service businesses, and restaurants with outdoor terraces. Braga offers diverse and scenic natural landscapes owing to its geography: the Cávado river to the north, the Serra dos Picos to the south (566 metres above sea level), the Serra dos Carvalhos to the east (479 metres above sea level), and Famalicão and Barcelos to the west. The city is located 50 km from Porto International Airport and 100 km from Vigo Airport.

Top 10 Attractions in Braga

Bom Jesus do Monte

Bom Jesus do Monte is a Catholic sanctuary dedicated to the Lord Bom Jesus, classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, located in Tenões on the outskirts of Braga. The sanctuary is a remarkable example of a pilgrimage site, centred on the Stairway of Bom Jesus do Monte, divided into the Stairway of the Portico, the Stairway of the Five Senses and the Stairway of the Three Virtues. Along the stairway are allegorical ornamental fountains representing biblical figures, and the Via Sacra of Bom Jesus, comprising 14 chapels. At the summit stands the Igreja do Bom Jesus, flanked by two towers and topped by a triangular pediment, alongside the gardens of Bom Jesus and the Elevador do Bom Jesus running parallel to the stairway on the hillside. The Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte is Braga’s most visited attraction.

Sé Catedral de Braga

Sé Catedral de Braga is a cathedral combining Romanesque, Manueline and Baroque styles, housing the tombs of the parents of Dom Afonso Henriques: Henry of Burgundy, Count of Portucale, and his wife Teresa of León. The Sé de Braga was established as the seat of the bishopric during the early Christian evangelisation of the Iberian Peninsula; Saint James the Greater, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, martyred in the year 44, is associated by tradition with the evangelisation of this region.

Santuário de Nossa Senhora do Sameiro

Santuário de Nossa Senhora do Sameiro is a Marian sanctuary located in Braga, featuring a high altar in polished white granite, a silver tabernacle and an imposing stairway with statues of the Virgin Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the summit. One of the main draws of the Santuário de Nossa Senhora do Sameiro is the view over the city of Braga.

Avenida Central de Braga

Avenida Central de Braga is one of Braga’s main avenues, situated in the historic city centre and one of the largest squares in northern Portugal. The avenue is lined with distinguished buildings, including the Basílica dos Congregados. At the top of the Avenida Central lies the Praça da República, where the keep of the former Castelo de Braga can be seen behind the Igreja da Lapa.

Parque da Ponte

Parque da Ponte is an urban park covering 24,000 m² that was awarded a national prize for Public Spaces in 2011. The park occupies the site of the former medieval bridge over the Rio Este that once served as the route to Guimarães. Today the park is home to the Capela de São João Batista, the Braga exhibition centre, the Complexo Desportivo da Ponte and the Parque de Campismo da Ponte.

Arco da Porta Nova

Arco da Porta Nova marks the site of one of the gates in the city walls, originally opened in 1512. The current Baroque and Neoclassical arch was built in 1772 and has been classified as a National Monument since 1910. It is the work of André Soares, a prominent Portuguese sculptor and architect active in northern Portugal during the 18th century.

Parque da Praia Fluvial de Adaúfe

Parque da Praia Fluvial de Adaúfe is a popular park in Braga with a generous grassed area and a river beach alongside the Rio Cávado. The bathing season at the Praia Fluvial de Adaúfe runs from June to September.

Mosteiro de São Martinho de Tibães

Mosteiro de São Martinho de Tibães is an imposing monastery founded in the 11th century, classified as a Property of Public Interest since 1944. The monastery was the chosen venue for the 23rd Iberian Summit, held in Portugal on 18 and 19 January 2008. Since February 2010, the Mosteiro de São Martinho de Tibães has opened to the public a guesthouse with 9 rooms and the restaurant “Eau Vive de Tibães”. The monastery museum lost much of the region’s valuable collection of paintings, sculpture and sacred art in 1834 following the disposal of the property, along with an extensive book collection. Visitors can nonetheless follow the heritage trail covering the surrounding area, the monastery’s architecture, the ruins of earlier buildings, the woodland, the gardens and the agricultural land.

Castelo de Lanhoso

Castelo de Lanhoso, classified as a National Monument since 1910, is one of Portugal’s most imposing castles, built on the summit of Monte do Pilar — a large granite monolith — set apart between the valleys of the Ave and Cávado rivers. Within the walls stands the sanctuary of Nossa Senhora do Pilar, a 17th-century sanctuary built using stone from the original walls. Halfway up the hillside, traces of an ancient Romanised hillfort can be found.

Torre de Menagem do Castelo de Braga

Torre de Menagem do Castelo de Braga is what remains of the Castelo de Braga, demolished in 1906. The keep and several sections of the medieval walls were classified as a National Monument in 1910.

Further Attractions in Braga

Citânia de Briteiros is an Iron Age archaeological site, discovered by archaeologist Martins Sarmento in 1875, located on the summit of Monte de São Romão in the municipality of Guimarães, near the sanctuaries of Sameiro and Bom Jesus de Braga. It is a hillfort settlement with the general characteristics of the castro culture of the north-western Iberian Peninsula, with traces of Latin inscriptions, Republican and Imperial coins, fragments of imported ceramics (terra sigillata), glassware and other finds.

Quinta Pedagógica de Braga is a traditional Minho farmstead covering approximately two and a half hectares, restructured with the aim of promoting environmental education and reconnecting people with nature.
Jardim de Santa Bárbara is a municipal public garden adjoining the medieval wing of the Paço Episcopal Bracarense, featuring a 17th-century fountain and a statue of Santa Bárbara originally from the former Convento dos Remédios.
Museu dos Biscainhos is an aristocratic palace featuring large rooms with ornate ceilings and Baroque gardens that reveal the daily life of 18th-century nobility, with numerous references to others who inhabited the space: servants, enslaved people and chaplains.
Termas Romanas de Maximinus are the ruins of a public Roman bath complex adjacent to the Forum of the former Roman city of Bracara Augusta.
Parque do Monte do Picoto is a forest park located on Monte do Picoto, offering a panoramic view over the city of Braga.
Museu de Arqueologia D. Diogo de Sousa is an archaeology museum established on 28 March 1918, with collections covering the northern Portugal region from the Palaeolithic to the Medieval period. Highlights include what is described as “the finest collection of Roman milestones in all of Europe”, thousands of coins from the Early Imperial period and tens of thousands from the Late Imperial period, a photographic archive, and images of vanished architectural and archaeological monuments.
Igreja de São Vítor
Palácio Raio, also known as Casa do Mexicano, is a palace in Baroque Joanine style, with a façade of Manueline windows set within blue azulejo tilework. The Palácio Raio houses a museum of medical equipment and instruments used in healthcare, as well as other objects from former hospitals.
Igreja do Pópulo
Igreja da Santa Cruz, Braga
Taipas Termal
Basílica dos Congregados, the former Igreja dos Congregados in Baroque and Rococo style, which received the title of Minor Basilica in 1975 from the Holy See and has been classified as a Property of Public Interest since 1993.
Fonte do Ídolo
Ponte de Prado
Igreja Misericórdia
Jardim do Museu dos Biscaínhos
Igreja do Carmo
Igreja de São Vicente, Braga
Câmara Municipal de Braga
Igreja da Lapa
Museu Pio XII
Mosteiro de Santo André de Rendufe
Tribunal de Arcebispos
Igreja de Santa Maria Madalena
Igreja São Marcos
Arquidiocese de Braga
Castelo da Dona Chica

Activities in Braga

Braga has a strong connection to sport, underpinned by the “Carta Desportiva de Braga” — a document produced to characterise sporting activities and identify the most suitable sports facilities for the population. This commitment to sport is visible in projects such as “Boccia Sénior”, “BragActiva” and “MEXE-TE Braga”, and in facilities including the Centro Municipal de Marcha e Corrida de Braga, the Swimming Schools and the Estádio Municipal de Braga. The craftsmanship of Braga — particularly sacred art, string instruments (notably the cavaquinho and the viola braguesa), azulejo tilework and gilded woodcarving — holds a prominent place in the city’s traditions and is an important tourist attraction. The promotion of Braga’s craft heritage is visible in the growth of small businesses producing soaps, jams, liqueurs, jewellery, dolls painted in regional dress, and religious goods shops.

Entrepreneurship and Technology in Braga

Braga has a dynamic economy and business environment in constant development and innovation. This is reflected in a world-class academic community, the establishment and growth of the International Nanotechnology Laboratory — unique in the world in its dedication to nanotechnologies — and Startup Braga, an innovation hub. Braga is regarded as the national Silicon Valley owing to the high concentration of software companies, including Primavera Software (the leading Portuguese software producer), Mobicomp (a Portuguese leader in mobile computing and communications business solutions) and Edigma (a Portuguese leader in digital project management and interactivity). The city also invests in entrepreneurship support initiatives, including Via Verde Empresa, the Regime de Exceção de Empreendimentos Estratégicos and Regeneração Industrial.

Gastronomy of Braga

Braga offers visitors a rich and varied cuisine, with specialities including bacalhau à Braga, bacalhau à Narcisa, papas de sarrabulho, rojões à Minhota, roast kid in the Braga style, roast veal, arroz de pato à moda de Braga, bacalhau à moda do Minho, frigideiras, caldo verde with cornbread, pudim Abade de Priscos, fidalguinhos, pederneiras, paciências, suplícos, cavacas de Morreira, fatias doces de Braga, broinhas de Santo António, sameirinhos, charutos de chila, mexidos, viúvas de Braga, rabanadas and aletria.

Braga’s Wine Region — Rio Cávado

Alvarinho
Mourisco de Braga or Mourisco da Semente

Festivals, Fairs and Pilgrimages in Braga

Holy Week Solemnities
Romaria a São Vicente
International Folklore Festival
Braga Romana: Reviver Bracara Augusta
Festival de São João
Gastronomic Weekend
Vinho Verde Fest
Gastronomia Viva
Craft Fair

Routes in Braga

Braga Youth Route;
Bracara Augusta Route;
Medieval Braga Route;
Baroque Braga Route;
Portuguese Way of Santiago de Compostela.

Quick Facts about Braga

Braga is the capital city of the Braga district, with:

City population: 110,000 inhabitants
Municipal population: 200,000 inhabitants
District: Braga
Region: Minho
Civil parishes: 37
Municipal holiday: 24 June
River beaches: 4 (Praia Fluvial de Navarra, Praia Fluvial de Cavadinho in Crespos, Praia Fluvial de Adaúfe, Praia Fluvial de Merelim São Paio and the leisure area at Ponte do Bico)
Businesses: 19,000
Hotels: 31
Rural tourism properties: 4
Hostels and Guest Houses: 10
Local accommodation: 19
Campsites: 1