Explorations of a fortified town, a former monastery and an Iron-age community in Northern Portugal.
Northern Portugal is famous for the cities of Braga and Porto, However, there is much to see in the area outside of those cities. There are many places in the area that are rich with history. On two different days, I visited Valença, the Monastery of São Martinho de Tibães, and Citânia de Briteiros.
Valença
In my previous post on Tui, we got a sneak peak at the fortified town of Valença across the river. I had picked Tui as a stop pretty early on in my planning for this trip. Valença, on the other hand, was right before I left for Portugal, after seeing a picture of it on Tumblr. I ended up in a stupid paid lot and the machine only allowed me to buy an hour, even though the limit was 2. So, here is literally a run through the town of Valença. Luckily it is very tiny.
Valença, as seen from Tui, Spain.
Google Maps Valença is two fortresses on adjoining hill connected by a bridge. It’s insane.
The first walls were built in the 13th century, with major 17th and 18th century renovations.
I started with some explorations of the fortifications.
A modern city coexisting within the old fortifications. Like most old fortified cities, the city has now grown well out of the walls of the fortress. I’m glad it survived.
The city of Tui, Spain, in the distance. That bridge in the photo is only slightly terrifying to drive across. It’s extremely narrow and there is an active railroad on the top level.
Capela de Nossa Senhora da Misericórdia, built in 1749.
Cute little chapel.
Cool building, except for that non-matching modern addition.
Main business district. It’s fascinating that the locals built such tall buildings in the old city instead of going to flatter ground.
The bridge connecting the two fortresses. Looking at the north side’s gate.
Exploring the southern fortress.
So many tiny sentry houses.
The southern part is less than half the size of the northern fortress and is a bit more low key.
Capela do Bom Jesus.
A lot of tiny chapels in this town.
Monastery of São Martinho de Tibães
The Monastery of São Martinho de Tibães is located on the edge of what are now suburbs for the larger city of Braga. The monastery was founded in the 11th century. The current appearance is from a major 17th-18th century renovation. Religious orders in Portugal were dissolved in 1834. Many were left in ruin. This one as well. Today, it is a Portuguese national monument. The monastery is still surrounded by gardens, forests and farm fields. The garden was closed when I visited, so I was only able to explore the monastery and church.
The front of the monastery was under scaffolding, so we’ll start in this gorgeous cloister.
The entire cloister is surrounded by these gorgeous azulejos (Portuguese traditional painted ceramic tiles).
Azulejos weren’t just patterns, but could have entire paintings on them that would normally be a fresco.
The cloister served as a giant hallway to multiple rooms, like this Sacristy.
Some of the doorways are no longer doorways. About of a third of the monastery burned down in 1894. The ruins that remained were saved once the state acquired the property. A modern museum was built where part of the monastery once stood.
While the monastery fell into ruin, the church stayed active.
I think we all need to appreciate the inner front doors in this church.
Can’t be a Baroque church on the Iberian Peninsula without over the top gilding. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
This chapel is soooooo over the top.
I don’t think I’ve seen a more ridiculous Rococo door.
The choir is reachable only through the dormitory.
Choir stalls can be extremely ridiculous. These little platforms help monks stand for hours. The seat does fold down.
The dormitories are huge. The head guys had their own apartment on the left.
Simple, but still a bit too fancy for a monk.
This is the fanciest monk cell I have ever seen.
Even the tiny cells were decorated.
Look at that. They even had indoor privies. I looked down the hole and it’s a stone lined cesspit.
A lovely restored room. If I remember correctly, this room was probably the chapterhouse.
Citânia de Briteiros
Southeast of Braga, the Citânia de Briteiros is an archaeological site that preserves an Iron age fortified settlement, called a castro. While it’s a small settlement, it did have some urban planning. There are narrow streets, blocks, and housing units, typical of a planned settlement.
Occupation of the castro started in the Bronze Age. However, its golden age started around 2nd century BC. The castro continued to be occupied through the Roman period.
Very narrow streets. It was raining and I had the place to myself.
Some of the streets turned into staircases of death. I still don’t know how I didn’t wipe out.
The housing units (also kind of like a compound) had open courtyards, enclosed by walls. Different buildings would be built inside the walls. These were terraced right into the hillside.
Citânia de Briteiros, and other Celtic settlements in the Iberian Peninsula, are know for their circular houses.
I swear I’ve had a bathroom once bigger than that house. If you were wondering what happened to all the walls. Locals had been robbing the stone out from the city until the 19th century.
So tiny. I guess if you only use it for sleeping, it doesn’t really need to be that big.
Extended families may have shared a courtyard with multiple houses.
The largest circular structure was the council house, where meetings of the elders would have taken place. Or so it’s thought.
Two of the circular houses were reconstructed. Still look tiny.
There is this random chapel in the ruins. A hermitage was founded on top of the ruins in the 10th or 11th century. This chapel was built in the 1850s.
A bathhouse, just a small bit of Roman influence in the area. Eventually this settlement would be abandoned in the 2nd century, probably due to Rome’s influence in the area.
These are just three of the wonderful places to see in the area outside of the larger cities.
Tune in for my next update where I visit one of those highly visited cities, Braga!
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Start at the beginning of this adventure!
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