Portugal - Guimaraes

Guimarães is a city in Guimarães Municipality, in the North of Portugal.

The city was founded upon much older settlements by Count Vímara Peres after his namesake (Vimaranis, later Guimaranis), soon after he established the 1st County of Portugal (in 868). As the first capital of Portugal, Guimarães is known as the place where the country was born – "The Cradle City". In 1095 Count Henry of Burgundy, who had married princess Teresa of León, establishes in Guimarães the 2nd County of Portugal (Condado Portucalense). In July 25, 1109 Afonso Henriques, son of Count Henry of Burgundy, is born in this same city. That is where Duke Afonso Henriques proclaimed Portuguese independence from the Kingdom of León, after the Battle of São Mamede, declaring himself to be Afonso I, king of Portugal.

The Historic Centre of Guimarães was declared a World Heritage Site in 2001 by UNESCO, due to its Middle Age historical monuments.

Portugal - Sintra

Sintra is a town in Sintra Municipality in Portugal, located in the Grande Lisboa subregion and the Lisbon Region. The town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site on account of its 19th century Romantic architecture.

Sintra has become a major tourist attraction, with many day-trippers visiting from nearby Lisbon. Attractions include the fabulous Pena Palace (19th c.) and the castle Castelo dos Mouros (8th or 9th century, reconstructed in the 19th century) with a breath-taking view of the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park, and the summer residence of the kings of Portugal Palácio Nacional de Sintra (largely 15th/16th century), in the town itself. The Sintra Mountain Range, one of the largest parks in the Lisbon area, (Serra de Sintra) is also a major tourist attraction.

In 1809 Lord Byron wrote to his friend Francis Hodgson, "I must just observe that the village of Cintra in Estremadura is the most beautiful in the world."

Portugal - Batalha Abbey

Batalha's abbey is one of Europe's greatest Gothic masterpieces and is protected as a World Heritage monument.

It was built in 1388 after King João I made a vow to the Virgin that he would build a magnificent monastery if she granted him a victory over the Castillians in the Battle of Aljubarrota. An equestrian statue of Nuno Alvares Pereira, the king's commander at the battle, stands before the southern facade.

The exterior possesses innumerable pinnacles, buttresses and openwork balustrades above Gothic and Flamboyant windows, while the front portal is decorated with statues of the apostles in intricate Gothic style.

In the vast Gothic interior are 16th-century stained-glass windows of exceptional beauty, and in the Founder's Chapel are the tombs of King João, his queen Philippa of Lancaster, and of their younger sons, including Prince Henry the Navigator.

The Royal Cloisters were first built in Gothic style in the late 1380s, but Manueline embellishments were added a century later. Typical Manueline symbols such as plants and flowers of the newly discovered lands and other seafaring motifs carved in every arch illustrates the variety and excitement of Portuguese art during the Age of Discovery.

The Chapter House guards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers, where the bodies of two casualties of World War I lie. The vaulting is an outstandingly bold feat (an unparalleled example of the Gothic style), rising to a height of 20m (60ft) without intermediary supports -- only condemned criminals were used to build it.

A magnificent Gothic doorway almost 15m (50ft) high with Manueline decoration gives access to the roofless Unfinished Chapels, perhaps the most astonishing part of Batalha. Seven chapels radiate from an octagonal rotunda, divided from each other by deeply carved incomplete pillars that create an effect of oriental exuberance. The massive buttresses were designed to support a dome that was left unfinished.