Portugal is one of the oldest nation-states in Europe and its borders have remained essentially unchanged since 1139 AD. We have prepared a list of the ancient and historic sites that every visitor with an interest in human history should make time for when they visit Portugal.
Foz Côa Valley is Europe's Largest Open-Air Paleolithic Art Gallery (18,000-22,000 BCE)
The Vale do Côa, in northeastern Portugal near the Spanish border, contains the largest concentration of outdoor Paleolithic rock engravings in the world with over 1,000 panels of carvings depicting horses, aurochs, ibex, and the occasional human figure, etched into the dark schist rock of a river valley between 18,000 and 22,000 years ago.
The site was discovered in 1992 and caused an international archaeological controversy when the Portuguese government initially proposed flooding the valley for a dam. The dam project was cancelled and the valley was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998. If you want to visit it requires booking a guided jeep tour through the Museu do Côa since public access is restricted to protect the carvings.
Conimbriga is Portugal's Best-Preserved Roman City (1st-3rd Century AD)
Conimbriga, south of Coimbra, is the largest and best-preserved Roman settlement in Portugal and one of the most maintained Roman sites on the Iberian Peninsula.
The excavated city reveals geometric and figurative Roman mosaic still in their original positions, as well as the forum, the basilica, bath complexes, private houses with atrium courtyards and gardens, and a section of the city wall with its original gatehouse structure. The site museum contains Roman household objects recovered from the excavations.
The entry ticket is €4.50 and the site is almost always uncrowded. It is accessible by public bus from Coimbra in 30 minutes.
Évora is A UNESCO City
Évora in the Alentejo region is a walled city of 50,000 people with 2,000 years of continuous occupation: a 1st-century Roman temple (the Temple of Diana, 14 Corinthian columns still standing in the city center), medieval walls, Gothic cathedral, Renaissance university cloisters, and the Baroque Chapel of Bones (Capela dos Ossos), a chapel in the Church of São Francisco whose walls and ceiling are entirely lined with the bones and skulls of approximately 5,000 monks.
The inscription above the entrance reads: Nós ossos que aqui estamos pelos vossos esperamos and is translated as "We, the bones that are here, await yours." The city is UNESCO listed and rarely feels as crowded as Lisbon or Porto.
Sintra is Palaces Layered Across Ten Centuries
Sintra, in the forested hills west of Lisbon is a dense concentration of palaces and historic monuments in Portugal. The landscape itself is a microclimate kept cool and misty by the Atlantic ocean and attracted successive waves of builders from the Moors.
You can find the Castelo dos Mouros a 10th-century hilltop fortification whose walls follow the ridgeline above the forest to Portuguese royalty (Palácio Nacional de Sintra, a royal residence from the 14th-19th centuries, with two enormous conical kitchen chimneys visible from the village) and the 19th-century Romantic-era fantasists (Palácio da Pena, an extraordinary polychrome palace built by King Ferdinand II in the 1840s that combines Gothic, Moorish, Manueline, and Renaissance elements.You will plan for a full day here because the sites are spread across steep hillside terrain and require walking.
Guimarães is Where Portugal Was Born
Guimarães in northern Portugal is known as the "Berço da Nação" or birth of the nation because the first king of Portugal, Afonso Henriques, was born here in 1109 and launched the campaign that established the Kingdom of Portugal.
The Guimarães Castle (10th century, partially restored) and the adjacent Palace of the Dukes of Braganza (15th century, now a museum with the largest collection of Brussels tapestries outside Belgium) is UNESCO listed and intact. The medieval center of the city is also well preserved with yellow-painted manors, stone arcading, and the Largo da Oliveira square with its 14th-century Gothic shrine are some of the most photogenic urban spaces in the country.