About the Center

Praia Nova - Aveiro

Praia Nova - Aveiro

 

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Perhaps the least well-known of all of Portugal’s regions, Central Portugal offers a varied and surprising landscape of green hills, fabulous beaches, historic villages and the steep slopes of the Serra da Estrella – continental Portugal’s highest mountain and home to its most famous cheese.

Known to the Portuguese simply as the “Beiras”, this region is home to some of Portugal’s most iconic dishes and is immediately associated with hearty and flavorsome food such as suckling pig, numerous goat dishes as well as Bairrada wines.

The city of Coimbra, in the heart of the Beiras is home to Portugal’s oldest university as well as some of its most traditional sweets. The historic cities of Viseu – famous for smoked meats and sausages and for Dão wine - and Castelo Branco with its cheese are not to be missed. Other compulsory stops along the coast include Aveiro – with its traditional salt production and its famous egg sweets – and Nazaré, a fishing town where old ladies in black skirts still hang fish out to dry in the sun.