Guimaraes

It grew from a fort that the tenth century countess Mumadona raised to guard a monastery, and its keep and walls still crown the hill. The wooden stairs inside the keep are steep enough that climbers keep one hand firmly on the handrail.

A fifteenth century ducal house whose roof bristles with a forest of brick chimneys. It lay ruined until a heavy rebuild in the twentieth century, partly as a presidential residence, so the rooms are closer to new than medieval.

Big letters reading AQUI NASCEU PORTUGAL, here Portugal was born, hang on a tower of the old wall, best seen from the Toural square side. At night the letters light up, and many people come back out to photograph them.

Houses with wooden balconies ring the square, and at its centre stands a Gothic stone canopy marking a fourteenth century battle victory. Sitting at an outdoor table and watching people is how evenings run here.

The oldest route from the castle down to the central squares, running narrow beneath granite arches and iron lanterns. Many houses jut out at the upper floors, leaving only a strip of sky over the lane.

A small Romanesque church on the lawn between castle and palace, its floor paved with the tombstones of old knights. Tradition holds that the first king was baptised at the font inside.

A cable car climbs from a park in town to the top of Penha, where a sanctuary and footpaths are scattered among huge boulders. Coming down, a forest path past the monastery brings you back to the old centre on foot.

Set in the cloister of the Oliveira church, the museum displays a tunic said to have been worn by King Joao I at the battle of Aljubarrota in 1385. The cloister yard is quiet enough to shut out the square.

An old industrial quarter where stone pits for soaking hides still line the stream. UNESCO extended the heritage zone to cover it in 2023, and several former factory buildings now hold university and cultural uses.

A former monastery on the lower slope of Penha, now run as a state pousada. You can see the church and part of the gardens without staying, and its terrace gazes down over the tiled roofs of the historic core.

Once a market ground outside the walls, now the main square, paved in wave-patterned stone. Old shopfronts ring it, their facades packed with small glass panes. From one corner you see the wall bearing the words Aqui Nasceu Portugal.

Named for the archaeologist who first excavated the Briteiros hillfort in the 19th century. Carved stones and jewellery from its round houses fill the Gothic cloister of an old Dominican convent. Pair it with the hillfort and both make more sense.

Guimaraes was European Culture Capital in 2012 and opened this arts centre on its old market site. Local-born painter Jose de Guimaraes gathered the African, pre-Columbian and Chinese pieces shown beside his canvases. The grey building sits low by a square.

A Franciscan church that keeps its Gothic doorway. The chancel walls are covered in 18th-century blue tile scenes of the saint's life. Parkland flanks it at the southern fringe of the historic core, far from the castle crowds, so the nave is quiet.