Today is a little cooler, and our itinerary takes us away from the noisy traffic into the ancient parts of the city. Coimbra has been a university town for over 700 years, and before that it figured in the struggle between Moors and Christians, changing hands several times. With improving fortunes of the Christian reconquest, Coimbra became the capital of the first true kings of a united Portugal.
The town sits on a hill overlooking the Mondego river.
Largo Portagem was the site of a Roman toll bridge. It now welcomes you into the pedestrian area of the old city.
The pedestrian way is lined with the usual restaurants and shops. Who buys all this stuff, anyway?
The church of Santa Cruz dates from Portugal's first kings and
contains an organ with an unusual rank of horizontal pipes. These are for the performance of the allegorical struggle of good and evil -- the horizontal pipes announce the arrival of the heavenly calvary.
The church is richly decorated with tile paintings of religious themes, and contains
the tombs of the first true kings of Portugal, who drove out (most) of the Moors and re-populated the country devastated by the wars.continued
1 comment:
Re the organ pipes ... seeing and hearing trumpets en chamade are both exciting to the senses!
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