Alcobaça

Alcobaça is a small city in Portugal's Oeste region. The popular bayside beach town of São Martinho do Porto is located in the municipality.

Understand


Alcobaça (ahl-koo-BAH-suh, /aɫ.ku.ˈba.sɐ/), on the banks of the rivers Alcoa and Baça, dates back to the 12th century. The municipality has 54,981 residents (2021 preliminary), with about 7,000 living in the city. The municipality includes seven towns: Alfeizerão, Aljubarrota, Benedita, Cela, Pataias, São Martinho do Porto, and Turquel.

By car
The main Lisbon–Porto route is the A1 motorway, but the A8 comes closer to Alcobaça.

Events
In November, the Monastery hosts the International Exhibition of Conventual Sweets & Spirits (Mostra Internacional de Doces & Licores Conventuais). Producers of sweets, pastries, and liqueurs from Portugal and elsewhere sell their goods inside. Some of the exhibitors are monks and nuns from convents. There is a light projection (at night) on the walls of the cloister inside the monastery, demonstration cooking, and some performances. In 2024, the dates will be November 14-17, and the daily entrance fee is likely to be €1. Entrance to the event is through the usual monastery entrance, near the north-west corner, facing the square.

Go next

 * Fátima (Sanctuary of Our Lady) – Place of the worldwide famous Marian apparitions.
 * Batalha – has a nice monastery.
 * Caldas da Rainha – charming, unassuming city to experience authentic daily Portuguese life
 * Leiria – with its famous castle.
 * Nazaré – a picture-postcard beach town, lately noted for its surfing
 * Óbidos – walled hilltop medieval town
 * Peniche – beaches and water sports, access to the Berlengas archipelago
 * Pinhal de Leiria, pinewood forest.
 * Tomar – Convento de Cristo, UNESCO World Heritage Site