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LISBON TOURS AND ITINERARIES TO WORLD HERITAGE SITES

World Heritage Sites in Portugal

A very good reason to travel in Portugal is to plan itineraries and tours that include various attractions, including World Heritage Sites. Starting from Lisbon and within a radius of 200 kms, several itineraries... can be designed to visit different World Heritage sites, as well as other places of great historical, cultural and scenic importance.

Portugal has several Unesco World Heritage sites and many more are awaiting this distinction.

Venture off the beaten track of mass tourism and go further in your search for enriching travel. Come and discover Portugal, its history and scenic beauty guided by the Unesco World Heritage routes!

We can help you. Contact us to find out how.

Historic Center of Évora

Evora roman temple
Roman temple
evora_geraldo_square
Geraldo square
evora cathedral.jpg
Cathedral

The Historic Center of Évora is a kind of Museum City and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The city contains monuments of various civilizations and cultures that over the centuries have made Évora a monumental city with a long history. Évora was inhabited by the roman, ... visigoths, arabs and christians, having preserved the heritage of these occupations. It was capital of the kingdom for long periods, benefiting from the construction and embellishment works, such as palaces, churches, convents, monasteries and even a long aqueduct that generously supplied the city with water in the 16th century.

Évora is a city surrounded by crenellated walls, with typical cobblestone alleyways and white washed houses with painted stripes. Évora did not suffer the destruction caused by the great earthquake that devastated Lisbon in 1755, hence the survival of its valuable historical heritage

Royal Palace, Convent and Basilic of Mafra

Palace complex of Mafra
Mafra Palace
Mafra Palace Library
Mafra Library
Mafra Palace painted ceiling
Painted ceiling

The Royal Building of Mafra was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019, comprising the Royal Palace, the Basilica, a Convent, the Cerco Garden and a vast hunting reserve.The Royal Building of Mafra, commonly known as the Palace or Convent of Mafra, was built in 1717 by King João V and is... considered one of the largest palace complexes in the world. It has been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2019 The extraordinary size of the building, which encompasses a palace, a convent, a basilica, a garden and a hunting reserve, can be better understood by those who don't already know it by looking at some of the figures that characterize it: it covers an area of 38,000 m, has 1,200 rooms, 4,700 doors and windows and 156 staircases, two carillons with 92 bells - the largest of their time and a set of 6 historic organs in the Basilica.

On the huge construction site, 52,000 workers, 7,000 soldiers and many artists, painters and sculptors from Italy and France worked. The building was constructed in record time - 17 years.

The city of Lisbon saw similarly opulent but smaller buildings built by the absolutist King João V, but they were all destroyed by the 1755 earthquake.

Cultural Landscape of Sintra

Pena Palace seen from High Cross
Pena Palace
sintra cultural landscape
S. Landscape
Countess Chalet
Countess Chalet

Sintra was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Cultural Landscape in 1995. This new classification respects the unique attributes of Sintra, a chain of hills ending in a promontory by the sea, covered in exotic and luxuriant vegetation that benefits from a humid, often rainy and foggy climate, which has inspired human occupation for many centuries linked to religion... (churches, hermitages, convents and sanctuaries), leisure and rest (hunting and refuge) and art (architecture, painting, music, etc.) - Sintra as a homogeneous whole with its own identity.

The artistic and mystical spirit of King Ferdinand II, a great fan of Romanticism, contributed greatly to this classification when he carried out the construction of the Palace of Pena, the Chalet of the Countess and its gardens. The king, who was German, used his influential position to encourage the spread of Romanticism among the social elite, to value Portuguese artists by paying for their training and to encourage the Portuguese to recover and value their artistic, historical and cultural heritage.

Elvas Border Barracks and its fortifications

elvas_st_luzia_fort
St Luzia Fort
Elvas graca fort
Graça Fort
The Throne Room
Graça F. gate

One of the largest bastioned fortification systems in the world is in Portugal. The city of Elvas, both inside and on the outskirts, is the embodiment of this system. From its medieval castle, Elvas grew into a fortified system that expanded and evolved in response to the technical advances of artillery warfare... from the 17th to the 20th century. This historical and cultural complex, designated as The Garrison Border Town of Elvas and its Fortifications was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012. Within its walls, the town contains barracks and other military buildings as well as churches,monasteries and other testimonies dating back to Muslim and medieval rule. The site also contains the Amoreira aqueduct, built to enable the stronghold to withstand lengthy sieges.

Convent of Christ in Tomar

convent of christ church altar
Church Altar
tomar convent of christ round church
Round church
fronteira palace
Facade

The Convent of Christ in Tomar is probably the largest monumental complex in Portugal and one of the largest in the world. Its architecture describes the main chapters of Portuguese history from the 12th to the 19th century. It was the main fortification of the Knights Templar, seat of the Order of Christ,... renowned convent and residence of nobles. It was built over seven centuries by several sovereigns and in its construction the various styles of Portuguese architecture are represented, namely Romanesque, Gothic, Manueline, Renaissance, Mannerism and Baroque. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Batalha Monastery

batalha monastery
Batalha Monastery
batalha monastery nuno alvares pereira statue
Nuno Alvares
batalha monastery church
Church

Batalha Monastery - When traveling through Portugal there are two types of referencing places for the informed visitor, those that are worth seeing and those that cannot be missed. The latter are not always in Lisbon, as is the case of the Monastery of Batalha. Built by the profound religious spirit of King João I in thanks to Our Lady... for the miraculous victory of Portugal in the battle of Aljubarrota in 1385, the Monastery is an extraordinary work of European medieval architecture and symbolizes the beginning of the Portuguese path towards the Epic Discoveries of the 15th and 16th century. Batalha Monastery is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Alcobaça Monastery

alcobaca monastery and church
Monastery
alcobaca monastery church
Church
alcobaca monastery church inside
Inside church

The Monastery of Alcobaça is the first entirely Gothic building in Portugal. Located in a fertile region, at the meeting of two rivers, the Alcoa and the Baça, its construction began in 1178 by the founding king of Portugal, Afonso Henriques, who destined it for the monks of the Cistercian order,... renewed in its Benedictine principles by Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux. The monks, who based their livelihood solely on their work, developed agrarian techniques and promoted agriculture and hydraulic techniques, while the king and his army continued the struggle to reconquer the land from the Moors. The Monastery of Alcobaça was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1989.

The Tower and Monastery of Belém in Lisbon

Belem Monastery
Monastery
Cloister of Belem Monastery
Cloister
Belem Tower
Belem Tower

The Portuguese Unesco World Heritage site that probably benefits most from the growing influx of mass tourism is the monumental duo of the Jerónimos Monastery and the Belém Tower, classified as UNESCO World Heritage in 1983.... Both monuments are located by the river, west of Lisbon in a place called Belém. They were built by King Manuel I at the time of the Epic of the Portuguese Discoveries in the 16th century and both share the decorative style known as Manueline, making them the best and most refined examples of this style.

The caravels that ventured out to discover new worlds and new trade routes set sail from the place where they were built, but pirate and enemy ships also arrived there. The tower protected the monastery and the entrance to Lisbon, but the river waters at that time almost touched the monastery and the tower was well into the river.