Tuesday 29 November 2016

COIMBRA, PORTUGAL

Coimbra is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of 319.40 square kilometres. The fourth-largest urban centre in Portugal (after Lisbon, Porto and Braga), it is the largest city of the district of Coimbra, the Centro region and the Baixo Mondego subregion. About 460,000 people live in the RegiĆ£o de Coimbra, comprising 19 municipalities and extending into an area 4,336 square kilometres.

Among the many archaeological structures dating back to the Roman era, when Coimbra was the settlement of Aeminium, are its well-preserved aqueduct and cryptoporticus. Similarly, buildings from the period when Coimbra was the capital of Portugal (from 1131 to 1255) still remain. During the Late Middle Ages, with its decline as the political centre of the Kingdom of Portugal, Coimbra began to evolve into a major cultural centre. This was in large part helped by the establishment the University of Coimbra in 1290, the oldest academic institution in the Portuguese-speaking world.


Apart from attracting many European and international students, the university is visited by many tourists for its monuments and history. Its historical buildings were classified as a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 2013: "Coimbra offers an outstanding example of an integrated university city with a specific urban typology as well as its own ceremonial and cultural traditions that have been kept alive through the ages."


This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

And here is the immortal Amalia Rodrigues singing the famous Portuguese fado "Coimbra".

8 comments:

  1. Going back to Lisbon for a few days in April, don't know if I have time to see anything else, but this place is beautiful.

    Worth a Thousand Words

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  2. What a fascinating photo.
    Thanks for linking up at http://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2016/11/ein-karem-birthplace-of-st-john-baptist.html

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  3. Marvelous skyline in the first photo. What a view.

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  4. What an amazing city. I had never heard of it before, having only visited Lisbon for one day while on a cruise.
    I enjoyed this post immensely, particularly the photograph of the city going up the hill, looking as if the houses had grown on top of one another for years.
    K

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  5. Coimbra was so amazing! Beautiful picture.

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  6. Very good picture with amazing light.

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  7. Hello Nick !I'm a student from University of Coimbra, I would be very thankful if you could answer to my questionnaire about the City of Coimbra in the context of master thesis in Marketing .The main objective of this study is to understand how the Tourists and Locals evaluate Coimbra’s city as a brand. The following questionnaire is aimed only at tourists who visited Coimbra. Thanks!
    This is my survey, If you can answer click on the following link please:

    https://drive.google.com/open?id=1TrK_FaacZpgm1Rr4Q0EB1XN6qE6jIXWwEcMuPDlkIk0

    ReplyDelete