The hook
Home to one of the oldest universities in the world, whose gilded Baroque library is guarded at night by a resident colony of bats that eat the insects threatening the books.
01Why it's worth it
Coimbra was Portugal's capital in the Middle Ages and has been a university town since 1290, and the old university crowning the hill is the reason to come. Its centrepiece is the Joanina Library, an eighteenth-century Baroque hall of dark gilded wood and painted ceilings, so precious that a small colony of bats has been allowed to live there for centuries, emerging at night to eat the bugs that would otherwise eat the bindings. The rest of the hilltop university carries its own weight of ceremony, including students in black capes and a distinct, more masculine and formal style of fado than Lisbon's. The steep old town below runs down to the Mondego river. It is a compact visit rather than a multi-day city, but the library and the living student traditions give it real character.
02How to experience it
Book a timed ticket for the Joanina Library, which limits numbers, and time a visit for term to catch the caped students and the ceremonies. Hear Coimbra fado, which is sung by men and tied to the university. Wander down through the old town to the river afterwards.
From the locals
Coimbra is the stop everyone tells you not to skip on the Porto–Lisbon run, and the recommendations are unusually concrete about why.
"If you're going by car from Porto to Lisbon, or vice versa, Coimbra is well worth a one-day stop," one wrote. "You can visit one of the oldest universities in Europe — a UNESCO World Heritage site — particularly the beautiful library, and wander through the narrow streets to the Mondego river. Then look back and appreciate the wonderful view of the old city, with the university on top."
Two others in the same threads back it without qualification: a traveller who ranked the whole country called their overnight in "charming Coimbra" a highlight alongside Porto, and another, blunter: "Coimbra is very much worth the stop. If only universities in the US looked like that."
The Joanina library is the specific thing they mean — a gilded baroque hall of walnut and jacaranda shelving whose books are protected, in part, by a resident colony of bats that eat the insects. Entry is by timed ticket and slots are limited, so book before you arrive rather than at the door.