Centro de Portugal — Heritage of the Beiras

Between the ocean and the Spanish border stretches the Centro Region, the geographic heart of Portugal and, perhaps, its historic heart too. This is the land of the Beiras — Litoral, Alta and Baixa — a territory of mountains, valleys and plateaus where an extraordinary density of heritage is concentrated: thousand-year-old universities, monasteries inscribed by UNESCO, walled towns and the oldest human art in Europe, carved into the rock of the Côa.

In administrative terms, the region corresponds to the districts of Coimbra, Aveiro, Viseu, Guarda and Castelo Branco, with the addition of part of the district of Leiria. But it is the memory of the Beiras, the historic provinces that preceded it, that best explains its identity.

The coastal strip: learning and sea

Along the coast, the Centro Region is dominated by Coimbra, seat of one of the oldest universities in continuous operation in the world. The University of Coimbra — Alta and Sofia is inscribed on the World Heritage List, and the city guards around it an unrivalled ensemble: the Old Cathedral, the foremost example of national Romanesque, and the Monastery of Santa Cruz, pantheon of the first kings of Portugal. A few kilometres away, the Roman Ruins of Conímbriga preserve the most thoroughly studied Roman urban site in the country.

In just a few dozen kilometres, the Centro condenses two thousand years: from the Roman city of Conímbriga to the medieval academy of Coimbra. Few regions offer so continuous a reading of Portuguese history.

The great monasteries and the fortified borderland

North of Leiria rise two of the country’s greatest monuments: the Cistercian Monastery of Alcobaça, of an almost abstract architectural purity, and the Gothic-Manueline Monastery of Batalha, raised in memory of the victory at Aljubarrota. Both belong to the World Heritage List.

Towards the interior, the landscape changes in tone. The borderline — the raia — sowed the Beiras with castles, walls and defensive settlements. It is here that one finds the twelve Historic Villages of Portugal (among them Monsanto, Sortelha, Idanha-a-Velha and Trancoso), stone settlements that preserve centuries of frontier life, and the episcopal cathedrals of Viseu and the Guarda, the latter the highest cathedral in the country.

The oldest art

In the far north-east, in the district of Guarda, the Côa Valley holds the largest known open-air ensemble of Palaeolithic rock art — engravings tens of thousands of years old, also inscribed by UNESCO. It is the testimony that the Centro was already a place of culture long before Portugal existed.

Explore the Centro Region