HistoryChapters I – V
Coimbra, from the ground up
The story of the city told through what can still be seen of it. A Roman floor beneath a museum; a gate from the city wall in the middle of the Baixa; a university in the king’s house; a monastery the river buried; a neighbourhood pulled down to make room for faculties. Each chapter is a place, and says how certain each statement is.
- Chapter I27 BC – 6th c.AeminiumRoman CoimbraBefore it was Coimbra, the city was called Aeminium. The ground the Romans built for the forum still lies beneath the Machado de Castro National Museum.Read the chapter →Baixa← west · the Alta hill in section · east →Alta
- Chapter II8th – 14th c.Almedinathe walled cityThe city changed hands four times between Muslims and Christians. The wall that enclosed it ran along the edge of the hilltop; what remains is a gate, a few towers and the name.Read the chapter (in Portuguese) →← Baixa and the Mondegothe Alta in plan, with the wall and its five gatesnorth ↑
- Chapter III1290 – 1772Universitythe city of collegesIt moved five times between Lisbon and Coimbra before settling for good, in 1537, in the royal palace. Around it grew a new, straight street and more than twenty colleges.Read the chapter (in Portuguese) →1290where the University was, on a scale of time1537 →
- Chapter IV13th – 20th c.The river that roseSanta Clara-a-VelhaThe Mondego buried the monastery in sand and water until the Poor Clares left it, in 1677. Today the river runs higher than the floor of the church.Read the chapter (in Portuguese) →westthe church in section, as measured · in blue, the level the river runs at todayeast
- Chapter V1941 – 1975The Alta pulled downthe University CityTo build the University City, the Estado Novo dictatorship pulled down more than two hundred houses, four colleges and a church. Two to three thousand people had to leave the Alta.Read the chapter (in Portuguese) →in tile red, 1934Rua Larga and Largo da Feira, before and after · solid, what was pulled downin outline, today