Date and time of visit: April 23, 2017, approximately 3:00 p.m.
We are still continuing our travelogue of western Spain and Portugal. Part 4 is about beautiful villages, places that are not world heritage. There are quite a few.
At the beginning of Part 4, I’ll introduce you to Bragança, an old city in the northeast of Portugal. (I was traveling back in time a bit, to April 23rd. As you can see on the map below, it’s located quite close to the Spanish border.
After this, we went back to Spain and stayed in a beautiful village.
ご参考：Puebla de Sanabria（プエブラ・デ・サナブリア）スペインの最も美しい村巡り No.24 ★★★★☆
As for the history, the Kingdom of Portugal became independent from the Kingdom of Spain in 1640, and the king at that time was João IV, who was from Bragança. The history of the city seems to be a little older than that. On the hill of the town, there is a castle with a fine wall and a watchtower, which is said to be from the 11th century.
Arriving in town, there was plenty of parking at the base of the hill where the castle is. We were able to park on the street (free as it was Sunday) and there was also a paid underground car park. It takes less than 10 minutes to walk to the hill, so it should be enough. In addition, there was also a parking lot in the area where the castle, but the number of capacity was small and did not seem to recommend.
For more information about the parking lot I parked in, please refer to the Google Street View below.
We went to the castle on foot. We went there while seeing the town slowly.
Then we went through the castle gate into the grounds. There was a big square in the castle, and there were some cafes and hotels around.
The castle is an observatory and weapons museum. There was an entrance fee, but it was about 2 euros. The inside of the museum was like a typical arms museum. It was not so impressive. Because it was a holiday, there were a lot of tourists.
You can climb the tower of the castle, and the view from here was very nice.
That’s all I have to say about sightseeing. The city is close to the Douro and Duero rivers (the former is the name in Portugal, the latter is the name in Spain, they are the same river), which are the main wine-producing rivers in Portugal and Spain, so if you stay in this city, you will surely enjoy good food and restaurants.
However, in my case, as I mentioned, I did not stay here, but went further north to stay in the most beautiful part of Spain. (To be continued)
