Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
fore 1755, are in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Imagine being a student in Coimbra centuries
ago, when this temple of learning stored the world's knowledge like a vast filing cabinet.
As you leave, watch how the doorman uses the giant key as a hefty doorknob.
Machado de Castro Museum
—Housed in the old bishop's palace, the Machado de
Castro contains a Roman excavation site, ceramics, and 14th- to 16th-century religious
sculpture (mostly taken from dissolved monasteries). Though it's long been closed for
extensive restoration, you can still visit its Roman section, with the rest of the museum
scheduled to finally reopen sometime in 2013.
CostandHours:
€2 during renovation but likely around €5 once fully reopened, Tue-
Sun 10:00-12:30 & 14:00-18:00, closed Mon,
http://mnmachadodecastro.imc-ip.pt
.
Visit
this before or after the old university, since both are at roughly the same altitude.
VisitingtheMuseum:
If you're here after the renovation is complete, first go upstairs
and look for the impressive 14th-century
Cristo Negro
carved in wood. Until a decade
ago, when this statue was cleaned (and the black—from candle soot—came off), it was
considered to be a portrait of a black Christ. Before you return downstairs, enjoy the views
from the top-floor arcade.
If you're visiting while the museum's mostly closed, it's still worth popping in to
see the excavations downstairs. The Roman building, with a basement crisscrossed with
empty tunnels, provided a level foundation for an ancient Roman forum that stood where
the museum does today. At the entrance, read the Latin-inscribed Roman stone: bottom
line—“Aeminiens,” referring to the people who lived in Roman Coimbra, then called
Aeminium; fifth line—the fourth-century emperor of the day, “Constantio”; and the
second line—a reference perhaps to an early alliance of barbarian tribes from the North
Atlantic. Notice the few economical “plug-on” Roman busts—from the days when they'd
keep the bodies, but change the heads each time a new emperor took power. The museum
sometimes houses art exhibitions here in the Roman tunnels or on the ground floor.
OldCathedral(SéVelha)
—Same old story: Christians build a church on a pre-Christian
holy spot (Visigoths in sixth century), Moors destroy the church and build a mosque
(eighth century), then Christians push out the Moors (1064), tear down their mosque,
and build another church. Notice the crenellations along the roof of this fortress-like
Romanesque church; the Moors, though booted out, were still considered a risk. If this re-
minds you of Lisbon's cathedral, it should—it was designed by the same French architect.
Cost and Hours:
Church—€2, no-photos policy rarely enforced; cloisters—€1; open
Mon-Sat 10:00-18:00, closed Sun.
Visiting the Cathedral:
The giant holy-water font shells are a 19th-century gift from
Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and the walls are lined with 16th-century tiles from Sevilla,
