Coimbra - Surroundings

About 1.5km/1mi east of Coimbra, in the suburb of Celas, is the former Benedictine abbey of Celas, founded in the 13th C. by Dona Sancha, daughter of King Sancho I, and much altered in the 16th C. It has a fine late 13th C. cloister which is worth seeing.

About 15km/9mi west of Coimbra can be found the convent church (1510) of St Mark, containing some notable 15th and 16th C. sculpture, and all that is left of the Hieronymite Convento de Sao Marcos which was destroyed by fire in 1860.

Lourosa, a little place about 75km/47mi east of Coimbra, has a pre-Romanesque, early 10th C. church. The belfry has been relocated because it was found to be on top of a very old burial site.

About 15km/9mi southeast of Condeixa, picturesquely situated on a spur of high ground, is Penela, with a massive castle (11th/12th C.).

Farther east of Celas is the church of the former Franciscan convent of Santo António dos Olivais, which was burned down in the middle of the 19th C. St Antony is said to have lived in the convent (founded at the beginning of the 13th C.) in about 1220.