Bragança, also spelt Braganza in English, is a city of about 35,000 people in the north-east of Portugal, in the remote mountainous region of Trás-os-Montes ("beyond the mountains"), a few kilometres from the Spanish border and Montesinho Natural Park. It is famous above all for its medieval citadel, a perfectly preserved walled village on a hilltop that is still lived in today.
A little history
The town began as a Celtic settlement called Brigantia, later Romanised. In the Middle Ages it was fortified by the first kings of Portugal, especially Sancho I, who had the castle built at the end of the twelfth century. Bragança gave its name to Portugal's last royal dynasty: in 1442 the title of Duke of Braganza was granted to Afonso, natural son of King John I, and in 1640, when independence from Spain was restored, Duke John became king as John IV. The House of Braganza ruled Portugal until the Republic was proclaimed in 1910 and, through one branch, Brazil until 1889.
The citadel and the castle
The Cidadela is enclosed by walls with many towers and gates, including the Porta de Santo António and the Porta do Sol. Inside stands the castle, dominated by the mighty Torre de Menagem, the Gothic keep about 33 metres high, which houses the Military Museum with weapons and uniforms from different periods. Next to it rises the Princess Tower, linked to the legend of a princess locked away by a jealous husband.
Among the citadel's houses you will find the pelourinho, the pillory column resting on an ancient granite boar (the porca), a pre-Roman sculpture typical of the region, the church of Santa Maria, with its Baroque portal, and above all the Domus Municipalis, a pentagonal Romanesque building, the only example of Romanesque civil architecture in Portugal, where the homens bons, the town's notables, met to settle disputes.
The lower town
From the fifteenth century the city spread beyond the walls towards the Fervença river. Here are the church of São Vicente, where tradition says the future King Pedro I secretly married Inês de Castro, the church of São Bento, founded at the end of the sixteenth century, with a fine Mudéjar-style coffered ceiling, and the Abade de Baçal Museum, in the former bishop's palace, with collections of sacred art, archaeology and painting, including watercolours by Aurélia de Souza.
Two modern museums tell the story of the region's culture: the Graça Morais Contemporary Art Centre, devoted to the painter born in Trás-os-Montes, and the Iberian Museum of Masks and Costumes, with the masks and costumes of the caretos, the masked figures who liven up the winter festivals and carnival in the area's villages.
Montesinho Natural Park
North of the city stretches Montesinho Natural Park, about 75,000 hectares of mountains, oak and chestnut woods, rivers and small stone villages with slate roofs, such as Rio de Onor, cut in half by the Spanish border. It is one of the wildest areas in Portugal, home to the Iberian wolf, red deer and many birds of prey, and ideal for hiking and rural tourism.
Food and getting there
Trás-os-Montes cooking is hearty: cured meats such as alheira and butelo, Mirandesa veal, chestnuts, mushrooms and rye bread. Bragança has no train service: it is reached by car on the A4 motorway from Porto (about two hours) or by bus; a small regional airport has links with Lisbon.