COIMBRA

The city, located over a hill by the river Mondego, was called Aeminium in Roman times. During late Antiquity it became the seat of a Diocesis substituting the nearby city of Conímbriga, which had been captured and partially plundered by invading Germanic peoples in 465 and 468, adopting later the name of the destroyed city. After the Roman city of Civita Aeminium, between 586 and 640, the Visigoths altered the name of the town to Emínio. The Moors ocuppied Coimbra around the year 711, turning it into an important commercial link between the Christian North and Muslim South. The city was definitely reconquered by Ferdinand I of Leon in 1064.

After being reconquered by the Christians, Coimbra became the capital of a new County (County of Coimbra), governed by the Mozarab Sesnando (Sisnando Davides), later incorporated into the County of Portugal. In the mid-12th century, the first Portuguese King, Afonso Henriques, turned Coimbra into the capital of the new Kingdom, a condition the city would keep until the year 1255. Many important monuments of the city date from this early period, like the Old Cathedral, the Church of St. James (Igreja de Santiago) and the Santa Cruz Monastery, which was the most important Portuguese monastic institution at the time.

Already in the Middle Ages Coimbra was divided into an upper city (Cidade Alta or Almedina), where the aristocracy and the clergy lived, and the low city (Cidade Baixa) by the river where most commercial activities took place. The city was encircled by a fortified wall, of which some remnants are still visible like the Almedina Gate (Porta da Almedina). The most important work in gothic style in the city is the Old Santa Clara Convent (Convento de Santa Clara-a-Velha), founded in the left side of the river Mondego by Queen Elizabeth in the first half of the 14th century. The Monastery was located too close to the river, and frequent floods forced the nuns to abandon it in the 17th century, when the New Santa Clara Convent (Santa Clara-a-Nova) was built uphill. The Queen's magnificent gothic tomb was also transferred to the new convent. The ruins of the old convent have recently been unearthed and can be seen today in the left bank of the river.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, during the Age of Discovery, Coimbra was again one of the main artistic centres of Portugal thanks to both local and royal patronage. Coimbra bishops, religious orders and King Manuel I supported artists like Diogo Pires (father and son), Marcos Pires, João de Castilho, Diogo de Castilho and the Frenchmen, João de Ruão and Nicholas of Chanterene, among others, who left important manueline and renaissance works in the town. Date from this period the remodelling in manueline style of the Santa Cruz Monastery, including the tombs of Kings Afonso Henriques and Sancho I, the renaissance Manga Fountain, the altarpieces and triumphal portal of the Old Cathedral, among other works.

The University of Coimbra, founded in Lisbon in 1290 by King Dinis I, was definitely transferred to the premises of Coimbra Castle in 1537 by King John III. Since then, the city life has revolved around the state-run university, and for many decades, several colleges (colégios) created to provide an alternative to the official form of teaching and established by the religious orders in the city, which were later gradually discontinued through the times with the secularization of teaching in Portugal. Built in the 18th century, the Joanina Library (Biblioteca Joanina), a baroque library, is other notable landmark of the ancient university, and the University Tower (Torre da Universidade), a baroque construction, from the school of the Italian architect Ludovice, built between 1728 and 1733, is the city's «ex-libris».

The first half of the 19th century was a difficult period for Coimbra, invaded by French troops under the command of Andoche Junot and André Masséna. The city recovered in the second half of the century with infrastructure improvements like the telegraph, gas light, the railway system and a railway bridge over the Mondego river.

Apart from the monuments already mentioned, it is also worth a visit to the New Cathedral of Coimbra (17th century) and the Machado de Castro Museum, the second most important one in Portugal, housed in the former Palace of the Bishops. The city also houses the University of Coimbra General Library, Portuguese second biggest library, after the National Library in Lisbon, and the Botanical Garden of the University of Coimbra from the 18th century.

Coimbra is also known for the reduced child-scale buildings in the Portugal dos Pequenitos park. These buildings are scale copies of Portuguese architectural landmarks and were built in the 1950s and 1960s.

Fado de Coimbra (Coimbra Fado) is a highly stylized genre of fado born in the city of Coimbra. Guitar player Carlos Paredes and singer Zeca Afonso, are among its most renowned and historical figures.

Orfeon Académico de Coimbra, the oldest and most famous academic choir in Portugal, an autonomous organization of the students' union Associação Académica de Coimbra, established in 1880 by a law student, and the fado section of Associação Académica de Coimbra itself, are important organizations in Coimbra fado promotion and preservation.

According to tradition, to applaud fado in Lisbon you clap your hands, in Coimbra you cough as if clearing your throat

Coimbra is also known for its university students' festivals. Two are held every year. The first one, Latada or Festa das Latas (The Tin Can Parade), a homecoming parade, occurs in the beginning of scholar year, and is a welcome to the new university students (Caloiros). The Festa das Latas goes back to the 19th century when the Coimbra students felt the need to express their joy at finishing the school year in as loud a way as possible, using everything at their disposal that would make noise, namely tin cans. The highlight of this festival, which now takes place at the beginning of the academic year (November) is the special parade known as the Latada. After marching through the streets of the city the new students are baptized in the Mondego River thus entering into the Coimbra academic fraternity. The 2nd year's students are awarded their Grelos (a small ribbon). The Grelo is a small, woollen ribbon with the color(s) of the student's faculty that is attached to a student's briefcase. Previous to this, at the morning the students must have visited the Dom Pedro V market where they must get a turnip to sustain the Caloiros during the day's festivities. Besides the tin cans they have tied to their legs, the new students wear all kinds of costumes made up according to the creativity and imagination of their godmothers or godfathers who are older students. They also carry placards with ironic criticisms alluding to certain teachers, the educational system, national events and leaders.

The second one, Queima das Fitas (The Burning of the Ribbons), more important than the first, takes place at the end of the second semester (usually in the beginning of May) and it is one of the biggest student parties in all Europe. It lasts for 8 days, each for each University of Coimbra's Faculty: Letras (Letters), Direito (Law), Medicina (Medicine), Ciências e Tecnologia (Sciences and Technology), Farmácia (Pharmacy), Economia (Economics), Psicologia e Ciências da Educação (Psychology and Education Sciences) and Ciências do Desporto e Educação Física (Sports Sciences and Physical Education).

Although being University of Coimbra's festivals, other higher education students of Coimbra such as the polytechnic's students or private institution's students, are invited every year by the University of Coimbra students who manage and organise this events, to participate in the Tin Can Parade and also in the Burning of the Ribbons.