Bragança, northern Portugal

Joerg and I aren’t city people, but we both loved our stay in Bragança and will definitely go back there again. The city has also cleverly provided a huge free parking area for campers with trees and green areas, so not just a piece of tarmac. And it’s right next to the castle so beautiful and accessible to the city at the same time. Awesome.

We parked up and wandered straight up to the castle to explore. It really is impressive, set up on the hill overlooking the city and the surrounding countryside for miles and miles. The castle is in great nick and you can walk on the ramparts (a defensive wall of a castle or walled city, having a broad top with a walkway and typically a stone parapet). Come on, let me try and look clever! You can walk three quarters way round the walls and peer into the gardens within the walls and across the valley and hills into the countryside. Super.

The castle is also a citadel and is surrounded by 15 towers. A citadel is the core fortified area of a town or city. It may be a fortress, castle, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of "city" and thus means "little city", so called because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core. Wikipedia. Whatever it is, it is just magnificent. There is also a keep, the Torre de Menagem. A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Wikipedia. How did we live before wikipedia?!

Igreja de Santa Maria is a small whitewashed 18th century church located within the walls of the castle. It is really cute and although I didn’t go inside, it is apparently worth looking into as it has a barrel shaped ceiling. Next time.

I particularly loved it at night, all beautifully lit up and majestic sitting there keeping guard on the hilltop.


Apparently / Probably it was first built in the 1100’s by King D. Sancho 1 as the first line of defence and then the citadel was totally fortified by King D. Fernando in 1377. The existing castle was built 1409-1449 (they took their time…). Okay, so enough of the history lessons, let’s walk into town and find something to eat.

The city itself is also lovely and we walked around for hours lost, I mean exploring things. Seriously, we love to just set off and go wherever the wind isn’t blowing. We found lovely little alleyways with hand chiselled steps, tiny hardware stores with goods on sale that were made when the castle was being built, grocery shops so tiny Joerg and I went in separately and all manner of quaint houses.

There was a lovely lady selling freshly roasted chestnuts, roasted over charcoal right there on the side of the street and sooooooo delicious. I’ve seldom eaten them, but I think I am now addicted to them. An aside, as I interrupt myself here, wild chestnut trees are everywhere in northern Portugal (please do not steal those belonging to others!) and easily accessible. They are a bugger to collect with their spikey covering, so maybe visiting the old lady is a better idea.

I also wandered the streets at night which I really love doing. It feels really safe and I can recommend a wander around after dark. It’s well lit up everywhere and cities have a totally different feel when the cars are gone and only a few people are out and about.

Back to finding something to eat. I did notice in the north (and later in central Portugal too) that there is no English spoken and only on occasion some broken French, but I have never let this stop me finding whatever I want. We had some fun and games trying to find a restaurant recommended to us that was apparently only 10 minutes away. 10 minutes in a low level jet yes, by foot no. We did, however, manage to find another super one and I will post about that next time.

In conclusion, I can recommend a visit to Braganca as it is really interesting and fun and ticks loads of boxes: city, countryside, food, history, national park, proximity to Spain, beautiful villages minutes away, and lots more! Name of region: Tras-os-Montes which literally means “behind the mountains.

Here a couple of websites:
www.travel-in-portugal.com
https://gotoportugal.eu/en/braganca-northern-portugal/