Portuguese Way of St. James - Central Portugal Section

There is a path before Coimbra and another after this city. The first days are spent discovering an ancient route, marked by the Roman colonization of the territory. The passage through Santiago da Guarda, Rabaçal, and Conímbriga attests to the importance of imperial roads as founding landmarks of the regional road network. It was also near one of these ancient roads that, in the 12th century, the King of Portugal Afonso Henriques donated the Ceras estate to the Templars, who would go on to build the Convent of Christ, one of the Portuguese heritage assets listed as a World Heritage site.

Part of the city of Coimbra is also part of UNESCO’s World Heritage, but the most important landmark of the Jacobean worship is on the south side of the Mondego River – the tomb of Queen D. Isabel of Aragon. After crossing the Santa Clara bridge, the city still preserves the church of Santiago, the queen's treasure in the National Museum of Machado de Castro, and the tomb of a forgotten bishop of Compostela in the Old Cathedral, with numerous legends and literary traditions related to the apostle's cult.

After Coimbra, the route follows the ancient lands of Santa Maria, along another Roman itinerary. Here, the marks of the empire are less noticeable, and the road network contains more enduring marks from the medieval period, a time when the bridges of Águeda and Marnel were built and a network of hostels that had Albergaria-a-Velha as one of its most famous facilities.