Things to do in Braga

Braga grew up around its cathedral, the oldest in Portugal, consecrated in 1089 before the country itself existed. The city still reads that way: church-dense, and older than almost anywhere else in the north. History runs deep here.

The Sé and the old centre

• The Sé. Braga's cathedral, begun at the end of the 11th century and rebuilt across several later periods, mixing Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque under one roof.
• The old streets. A dense, mostly pedestrian centre around the cathedral, with baroque façades that outnumber the plainer, older ones underneath them.
• Braga as a base. The city sits close enough to Porto and to Guimarães that most of the north can be reached from here in under an hour.

Bom Jesus do Monte

• The staircase. A Baroque pilgrimage climb of some 580 steps in three symbolic stages, begun in 1722 and finished the better part of a century later.
• The funicular. Built in 1882 and worked by water rather than an engine, the descending car's tank filled to outweigh and pull up the other; the oldest funicular of its kind in the Iberian Peninsula.
• The view from the top. The basilica sits above the last stage of steps, with the fountains and chapels of the climb spread out below it.

Practical

• Weather. Summer passes 28C inland; winter days sit around 13C, and the rain matches Porto's, so layers matter more than sunscreen.
• Getting up to Bom Jesus. A bus covers the few kilometres from central Braga; the funicular or the staircase itself covers the climb from its base.
• Peneda-Gerês. Portugal's only national park starts about fifty kilometres northeast; buses run from Braga, a car takes about an hour.
• Sundays. Some museums and smaller sights close or run reduced hours; the cathedral and Bom Jesus stay open regardless.