On the ribbon of dunes separating the Ria de Aveiro from the Atlantic, Costa Nova is famous for its striped houses, the palheiros: once they were wooden huts where fishermen kept tools and nets, painted in bright vertical stripes so they could be recognised even in fog. Today they are holiday homes painted in red, blue, green and yellow stripes, among the most photographed sights in Portugal. Costa Nova belongs to the municipality of Ílhavo, a town with a long seafaring tradition.
Beaches and lighthouse
On one side is Costa Nova's long, wide and windy ocean beach; on the other the lagoon, with calm water and a fish market. To the north, Praia da Barra has the Barra lighthouse, 62 metres tall, the tallest in Portugal, which can be visited on certain days.
The Ílhavo Maritime Museum
Ílhavo is the home of the cod fishermen: for centuries its men left for months for the banks of Newfoundland and Greenland aboard the sailing ships of the so-called "white fleet", fishing cod alone from small rowing boats called dóris. The Ílhavo Maritime Museum, in a modern building, tells this epic with a reconstructed trawler deck, models and photographs, and has a remarkable cod aquarium. The museum also includes the Santo André museum ship, an old trawler moored at Gafanha da Nazaré.
Vista Alegre
The municipality is home to the Vista Alegre porcelain factory, founded in 1824, Portugal's most famous, which has made services for royal courts and heads of state. The workers' village built around the factory includes a museum with two centuries of porcelain, the seventeenth-century chapel of Nossa Senhora da Penha de França, with the bishop's tomb, and a hotel. Costa Nova is about 20 minutes from Aveiro by car or bus.