Castles · Tour

Private Bracara Augusta and Guimarães, with the Granite of Penha

Two of the oldest cities in Portugal, privately, for people who came for the heritage rather than the photographs. Braga goes back to the Roman Empire. It has been a trading city for two thousand years, well placed on the routes that ran to Rome in the 1st century BC, and it was called Bracara Augusta after the emperor Augustus. That history is still readable in the remains and in the shape of the centre. Guimarães is the cradle of the nation. It was the ground on which independence from the kingdom of León was fought for, and the birthplace of Afonso Henriques, the first king. The medieval street plan and the buildings on it survive intact enough that UNESCO listed the city in 2001. The route also climbs Penha, above Guimarães, where the granite boulders can be walked under as well as over and the view runs across the whole valley.