Vila Viçosa Tour
Vila Viçosa is made of Museums, Convents, Monasteries and Palaces of white marble. Here we have the “Paço dos Duques de Bragança”. The Palace of the former Royal House of Portugal.
We'll begin our visit in the historical center, the medieval Village. Surrounded by the walls we have a monumental cemetery. The most famous tomb is not that of a soldier or navigator but the tom of the poetess “Florbela Espanca”. We can visit the Sanctuary of “Nossa Senhora da Conceição”, the protector of Portugal. This is one of the 722 names of Maria in Portugal. On the medieval wall we’ll find engraved thousands of symbols. They represent requests of protection to Our Lady or "Votos". The medieval Castle is now a Fort rebuilt in the 15th century to better resist cannons. Here we have the Museums of Hunting and Archaeology. The latter hides archaeological treasures that were gathered by the Kings over the centuries. We’ll leave the Medieval Village and go to the Renaissance Town. We’ll walk along the main avenue built in the 20th century by the “Estado Novo”. The construction of this avenue forced the destruction of blocks of buildings. We continue our tour through streets lined with Palaces from the 17th and 18th centuries. We'll arrive at “Terreiro do Paço” and around this square we have several monuments. The Church of the “Agostinhos” or the Convent of the “Chagas” are two of them.The highlight goes to the 17th century “Paço Ducal”, tke Palace of the House of Bragança, the last Royal House of Portugal. We can visit the Palace, Carriage collection and the Gardens.
If we still have energy we can go up to “Alto de S Bento” where we’ll find the ruins of a Fort and a Church. From here we can see the immense “Coutada”, the hunting grounds of the King, and “Alto da Forca” where the gallows were. We can also visit the interesting Marble Museum in the outskirts of the city.
