Tourist Attractions in Braganca

The attractive old town of Bragança (Altitude: 670m/2,198ft), the Roman Iuliobriga, lies in a pleasantly cool setting on a hill above the valley of the Rio Sabor, in the extreme northeast corner of Portugal.

The town is the original seat of the House of Bragança, which ruled in Portugal from 1640 to 1910 (for the last part of the period in the female line of Saxe-Coburg-Bragança) and in Brazil (as Emperors) from 1822 to 1889.

As capital of the district of Bragança (area 6,608sq.km/2,550sq.mi; pop. 185,000) it is the cultural and economic heart of the surrounding countryside, which is mainly given over to farming, although in the town the traditional local craft of silk-weaving still flourishes.

Townscape

The medieval upper town is encircled by fortified walls about 2m/6.5ft thick, while the newer lower town boasts many fine burghers' houses and noble mansions of the Renaissance period, with handsome granite facades.