Portugal's UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Portugal has a remarkable number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites for its size: historic city centres, monasteries, palaces, a wine region carved into terraces, prehistoric rock art and an ancient forest on Madeira. Here’s a guide to Portugal’s UNESCO sites and how to visit them.

Quick answer: the easiest to visit are Sintra, Jerónimos and Belém Tower in Lisbon, Porto’s historic centre, the Douro Valley, Évora, Guimarães, the monasteries of Batalha and Alcobaça, Tomar’s Convent of Christ, Mafra, Bom Jesus in Braga and the University of Coimbra. On the islands: Angra do Heroísmo, Pico’s vineyards and Madeira’s laurel forest.

Lisbon and around

• Jerónimos Monastery and Belém Tower: Manueline masterpieces of the Age of Discoveries. See Belém.
• The Cultural Landscape of Sintra: palaces, castles and gardens. See visiting Sintra.
• Mafra Palace: the palace, basilica, convent, garden and hunting park. See Mafra.

Central Portugal

• Batalha Monastery and Alcobaça Monastery: Gothic masterpieces near Fátima. See Fátima and the monasteries.
• Convent of Christ, Tomar: the Templar stronghold. See Tomar.
• University of Coimbra: including the baroque Joanina Library. See Coimbra.

The north

• Historic Centre of Porto: the Ribeira and the old town. See Porto.
• Alto Douro Wine Region: terraced vineyards along the river. See the Douro itinerary.
• Historic Centre of Guimarães and Bom Jesus do Monte, Braga. See Braga and Guimarães.
• Côa Valley rock art: open-air prehistoric engravings in the northeast.

The Alentejo

• Historic Centre of Évora: the Roman temple and the walled town. See Évora.
• Elvas: the border town with its huge star-shaped fortifications and aqueduct.

The islands

• Angra do Heroísmo (Terceira): a historic Atlantic port town. See Terceira.
• Pico Island vineyards: vines in lava-walled plots. See Pico.
• Laurisilva of Madeira: the ancient laurel forest, walked along the levadas. See levada walks.

Also recognised by UNESCO

• Fado (intangible cultural heritage). See fado in Lisbon.
• Óbidos, a UNESCO City of Literature. See Óbidos.
• The Berlengas, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. See Berlengas.

More: castles, palaces and a quick history of Portugal.

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