Bragança

Bragança is a city of 35,000 people (2011) in Trás-os-Montes. It is one of the oldest cities in Portugal. Domus Municipalis and the castle are the most famous monuments in this city. It is sometimes spelled Braganza in English, especially in reference to the royal family.

Understand




Bragança (bruh-GUHN-suh, /bɾɐ.ˈgɐ̃.sɐ/) is one of the oldest cities in Portugal. In the 2nd century BC, in the time of the Celts, it was called Brigantia. Later, the Romans called it Juliobriga. The Celtic name became Latinized as "Bragança".

Climate
Bragança has a temperate climate, with cold, long winters and hot, short summers.

Get in


Rede Expressos buses run from Braga, Porto, and other cities. Rodonorte provides bus service from many places in Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro and Douro Litoral. Twice a week there is a bus from Zamora in Spain - no web address so phone either bus station for details.

There has been no train service to Bragança since 1991.

Get around
Walking will be easy for most but it's possible to get a taxi up to the Cidadela for those who find the short but steep hill daunting. The city has also a local bus system.

See


The town is pleasing and there's a good museum in the main street.


 * Torre de Menagem - the massive keep of a castle belonging to the Dukes of Bragança, the last Portuguese royal family, but not their principal residence, which was at Guimarães. The quadrangular tower is 34 metres high. The Military Museum is open inside.
 * Domus Municipalis - a pentagonal lay building - probably an 11th-century council chamber. it is an interesting example of Romanesque civil architecture. According to Leite de Vasconcelos, it was built in the 12th century. It has already served as a cistern and was later adapted to city halls. It has a hexagonal plan and granite walls. It has a set of low-arch windows, which provide lighting to the building. Along the cornice, which is supported by 64 dogs, a gutter runs, designed to collect rainwater, then led to the cistern.
 * A preaching cross rising from the back of a prehistoric pig outside the castle.
 * Military Museum — Located in the keep of the castle, it has an important collection of armory, from the Middle Ages to the present day.
 * Military Museum — Located in the keep of the castle, it has an important collection of armory, from the Middle Ages to the present day.

Do

 * Montezinho National Park
 * Riverside promenade - The riverside promenade, with wooden floors, on the edge of the river Fervença, is more than one kilometer long. You can continue walking to the castle, on a well visible and panoramic dirt path.
 * Festa dos Rapazes - Around Christmas and New Year's Eve, in the villages that surround Bragança. The main element of the festivities is the Careto ou Chocalheiro, a male person covered with a wooden or tin mask and wearing colorful clothes, personification of primeval forces and to whom everything is temporarily allowed.

Buy
Local souvenirs/ceramics, wick baskets.

Drink

 * Local mineral waters
 * Port (Douro) wine

Connect

 * Bragança Wi-Fi

Go next

 * Miranda do Douro (Miranda de l Douro in the Mirandese language).
 * Chaves, a historic city traversed by the bucolic Tâmega river. There's a casino in Chaves.
 * Vidago (Chaves) and Pedras Salgadas (Vila Pouca de Aguiar) — spa towns