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Hiking trails & Routes

Portugal

Coimbra

Coimbra (Santa Cruz)

Coimbra Old Cathedral – Saint Sebastian Aqueduct loop from Coimbra

Routes

Hiking trails & Routes

Portugal

Coimbra

Coimbra (Santa Cruz)

Coimbra Old Cathedral – Saint Sebastian Aqueduct loop from Coimbra

Easy

5.0

(9)

hikers

Coimbra Old Cathedral – Saint Sebastian Aqueduct loop from Coimbra

01:45

6.20km

120m

Hiking

Easy hike. Great for any fitness level. Easily-accessible paths. Suitable for all skill levels. The starting point of the route is accessible with public transport.

Last updated: May 20, 2026

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957 m

Church of Santa Cruz (Igreja de Santa Cruz), Coimbra

Highlight • Religious Site

Very beautiful monastery church. Be sure to see it from the inside!

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1.33 km

Coimbra Old Cathedral

Highlight • Religious Site

Neither the start of construction nor the date of completion of the old Sé Velha cathedral is available. The construction was probably started in the first years of the reign of Afonso Henriques, who proclaimed himself the first king of Portugal in 1139 after the battle of Ourique and his victory over the Moors and founded the kingdom of Portugal. By the end of the 1170s, construction work on the old cathedral was probably completed. In 1185, the coronation of Sancho I, the successor of Afonso Henriques, took place there.

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2.33 km

Saint Sebastian Aqueduct

Highlight • Monument

The original Aqueduto de São Sebastião was built under Roman rule to supply water to the city of Aeminium (now Coimbra).

During the Migration Period, the Suebi destroyed the neighboring bishopric of Conimbriga, whose name and function then passed to Aeminium. After Coimbra was conquered by both sides in the conflicts between Christians and Moors, the aqueduct lay in ruins.

Under the reign of King Sebastian I, the engineer Filippo Terzi (Portuguese: Filipe Terzi), who came from Bologna in Italy, built the current aqueduct in 1583. By using the old foundations and many ancient building blocks, the work was largely a reconstruction and only took a few months.

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2.83 km

Church of Saint John of Almedina

Highlight • Religious Site

The Church of San Juan de la Almedina was documented as early as 1083 and belonged to the Episcopal Palace of Coimbra. The temple was completely renovated in the 12th century in Romanesque style, probably at the same time as the monastery next door, which was discovered in the 1940s and consecrated around 1200.
The church was rebuilt between 1684 and 1704 when it took on its current appearance. Like the rest of the episcopal palace, it was ceded to the community of Coimbra in 1912 and thus became part of the Machado de Castro National Museum, which has housed a department of church art since 1923.

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2.91 km

View of Coimbra and the Mondego River

Highlight • Viewpoint

Coimbra, a city known as the city of students, even has a type of student fado, "fado de Coimbra".

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3.71 km

General Library of the University of Coimbra

Highlight • Historical Site

At the highest point of the upper old town lies the university with the baroque clock and bell tower, the Biblioteca Joanina with around 300,000 precious books and the Capela de São Miguel. Right next to this part of the university, which dates from the Baroque and earlier epochs, a number of faculty buildings, colossal statues and a monumental open staircase were built during the time of the fascist Estado Novo in the 1940s, to which a large part of the historically grown upper old town was sacrificed fell.

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4.73 km