Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Centro de Arte
Contemporânea Graça Morais
(Rua Abílio Beça 105; adult/student €2/1, mornings & Sundays free; 10am-12.30pm & 2-6.30pm Tue-Sun)
This
cross-border collaboration between Portugal and Spain has a permanent collection that
features local painter Graça Morais' haunting portraits of Trás-os- Montes residents,
alongside more abstract work. The modern annexe showcases rotating special exhibitions,
and there's a cafe with a lovely patio.
MUSEUM
CHURCH
Igreja de São Bento
(Rua São Francisco)
Bragança's most attractive church has a Renaissance stone portal, a won-
derful
trompe l'œil
ceiling over the nave and an Arabic-style inlaid ceiling above the
chancel.
Igreja de São Vicente
(Largo de São Vicente)
Romanesque in origin but rebuilt in the 17th century, this church may
have played host to a chapter in Portugal's favourite - and grisliest - love story. Tradition
has it that the future Dom Pedro secretly married Inês de Castro here around 1354.
CHURCH
Sé
(Praça da Sé)
Bragança's modest old cathedral started out in 1545 as the Igreja de São João
Baptista, but moved up the ranks to become a cathedral in 1770 when the bishopric
moved here from Miranda do Douro. It was then downgraded again when Bragança's con-
temporary cathedral, the
Igreja de Nossa Senhora Rainha
, opened just west of the centre.
CATHEDRAL
Festivals & Events
Bragança's biggest annual market,
Feira das Cantarinhas
, runs for three days in early May.
It's a huge street fair of traditional handicrafts (a
cantarinha
is a small terracotta pitcher)
held in and around the Cidadela.
Sleeping
Bragança's central hotels are largely dreary low-budget affairs whose glory days seem to
have been sometime in the early 1970s. There are also two campgrounds in the nearby
Parque Natural de Montesinho.
