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COIMBRA - PORTUGAL
Coimbra is a city and a district of Portugal.
Coimbra city is located in the central part of Portugal, 120 km south of
Porto and 195 km north of Lisbon in the A1, the main highway of Portugal.
The city is the main administrative centre of Central Portugal. Coimbra is
set by the Mondego River, about 40 km East of Figueira da Foz, a neighbour
coastal city with several beaches, summer and seaport facilities in the
Atlantic Ocean coast.
About Coimbra
The city of Coimbra has a population of about 175,000, and 500,000
inhabitants in its metropolitan area. It is the third largest city of
Portugal and the capital city of the central part of the country. With a
dense urban grid the city of Coimbra is also famous for its monuments,
churches, libraries and numerous parks and gardens.
The fame of the
city, which was capital of Portugal during part of the XII and XIII Century,
rests mostly on its University of Coimbra with about 32,000 students, but
also in shopping, technology industry, administrative offices, financial
services and specialized medical care (see Hospitais da Universidade de
Coimbra). The university founded in 1290 is one of the oldest in Europe,
attracting students from around the world which gives the city a special and
rare atmosphere. Nowadays it has students from 70 different nationalities.
Coimbra is also known for the reduced child-scale buildings it has erected
within one of its city parks. These buildings are scale copies of its own
typical pieces of architecture.
It has a large archeological site with extensive ruins dating from the time
it was a Roman town called Aeminium. The cathedral of Sé Velha, built in the
12th century in the Romanesque style, is still in operation, and it is worth
to visit all the old buildings from the university dating XV, XVI, XVII and
XVIII century, the New Cathedral from the XVII century, the Monastery of
Santa Cruz from the XII century with the tombs of the two first portuguese
kings and the Machado de Castro Museum.
Tourism
There is a wide variety of accommodation available, ranging from the
camping-park or one of the many inexpensive hostels to the charming downtown
hotels.
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