Best Things to Do in Barcelos

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  • Igreja do Bom Jesus da Cruz
    Igreja do Bom Jesus da Cruz

    Built in 1704 on the site of the miraculous apparition of a cross. The small, domed church is octagonal and built in a granite/whitewash style common to the north of Portugal. Like many churches in Portugal, the relative plainness of the exterior does not hint at the lavish interior.

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  • Mosteiro de São Martinho de Tibães - Claustro do Cemitério
    Claustro do Cemitério
    Pedro Nuno Caetano | BY-SA

    The ‘mother house' for the Benedictine order of monks in both Portugal and Brazil, the Monastery of São Martinho de Tibães was founded in around 1060. By the 1500s the original monastery buildings had fallen into disrepair. Its monks therefore set about entirely reconstructed it, using the money they received from donations and ground rents in the region.

    The refectory and cloisters were finished in the 1660s, although construction work on the rest of the structure continued for around 100 years more. This is when one of Braga's most important architects got involved. André Soares...

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  • Capela São Frutuoso - Braga
    Capela São Frutuoso
    Jose Goncalves | BY-SA

    The Chapel of São Frutuoso was, incredibly, first built by the Visigoth kingdom in the sixth century AD. This makes it some 1500 years old, and one of few such structures to exist anywhere in Portugal. Today its squat Greek cross form and plain stone exterior is somewhat overshadowed by the much later Church of São Salvador, which is connected to it on one side.

    Tradition has it that this place of Christian worship was built to replace an ancient Roman temple dedicated to Asclepius, the god of medicine and good health. It managed to survive the period of Arab rule on the Iberian...

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Barcelos

Barcelos travel guide »

Probably the most famous symbol of Portugal, the colourful ceramic cockerel has its origins in the pretty town of Barcelos where, according to local legend, it is reputed to have saved the life of a traveller wrongly accused of theft...