Tourism

Câmara Municipal de Lamego

The Lamego City Council is the main executive body of the municipality, responsible for the administrative, cultural, and urban management of the city. The building houses the municipal services and is a reference point in the political and social life of the community.

Igreja de São Francisco

The Church of São Francisco, also known as the Church of São Francisco de Assis, is located on Rua de Almacave in Lamego. It is a building of typical Franciscan architecture, marked by a simple and unpretentious exterior, characteristic of this type of religious structure. Inside, the highlights include the main altarpiece painting, dating from the 17th century, as well as the narrative and national tile panels from the 18th century. The interior space is arranged in a single nave with side chapels, giving it a clear and balanced layout. The church forms part of the heritage ensemble of the parish of Almacave and is located close to other important monuments in the city, such as the Church of Santa Maria de Almacave and the Chapel of Our Lady of Hope.

Teatro Ribeiro Conceição

Dating back to 1727, this theater was initially built to be the Misericórdia Hospital of Lamego, which operated here until 1892. Four years later, the old hospital became the new Regiment Barracks. However, on July 31, 1897, a serious fire reduced this building to rubble. In 1924, Commander José Ribeiro Conceição bought the ruined building at a public auction for ten thousand and one escudos (forty-nine euros and eighty-eight cents) and transformed it into an important and prestigious concert hall that would be a reference in the cultural life of the country’s interior for several decades. With great pomp and circumstance, the theater was inaugurated on February 2, 1929, maintaining its cultural activity until 1987, the year it was already in an advanced state of degradation. Finally, the Municipality of Lamego decides to proceed with the acquisition of this 18th-century monument, and in 1993, recovery and consolidation works were carried out on the building. At the end of 2005, rehabilitation works were carried out, and on February 23, 2008, the most beautiful concert hall in the Douro region was reopened: the Ribeiro Conceição Theater.   O horário de funcionamento do teatro poderá variar consoante a programação de espetáculos e eventos.

Lamego Museum

Located in the historic centre of the city, the Lamego Museum was founded in 1917, in an 18th-century building that served as the Episcopal Palace. It belongs to the select group of centenary museums, whose creation reflects the effects of the Law of Separation of Church and State (1911), which followed the establishment of the Republic. With a truly eclectic collection, it houses painting, tapestry, furniture, goldsmithing, liturgical vestments and means of transport that were part of the former palace’s furnishings, later complemented by a set of chapels decorated with gilded woodcarving, archaeological artefacts, ceramics, prints, drawings and photography. The Flemish tapestry collection, woven in Brussels in the first half of the 16th century, the panels painted by Vasco Fernandes (Grão Vasco) for the Lamego Cathedral at the same time, the 17th-century tile panels, and a medieval tomb chest, classified as “national treasures,” are among the most significant works in a chronologically wide-ranging collection, with pieces dating from the 1st to the 20th century. Diverse and varied, the collection allows visitors to trace the evolution of the city of Lamego and the lives of the men and women who inhabited it over the centuries. The museum is part of the network of National Museums and Monuments in Portugal, managed by the Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage (DGPC) and integrated into the national circuit, even though it is currently undergoing refurbishment to modernise the facilities and improve accessibility.

Sé de Lamego

In the 12th century, after the restoration of the diocese of Lamego, the construction of a larger temple began. Its location was established in the Rossio de Lamego, in the lower part of the future city, and construction began in the year 1159. Consecrated in 1175 to Santa Maria and S. Sebastião, the probable conclusion of the Cathedral would only happen in 1191. However, the various ages of History were responsible for significantly altering its original Romanesque profile. The Cathedral opens onto a wide paved churchyard, a work from the 18th century, with the facade marked by the robust tower remodeled in the 1700s. The main facade of the temple was rebuilt during the reign of D. Manuel I, combining the forms of flamboyant Gothic and the timid emergence of some forms of the Renaissance. Indeed, this renovation of the episcopal cathedral began in the 15th century and continued through the next. The facade’s construction campaign took place between 1508 and 1515, according to the plans of the architect João Lopes. On the ground floor, three pointed arch portals open, with the central one being larger, consisting of several archivolts resting on colonnettes, decorated with small sculptures of plant and zoomorphic motifs. Above these, Gothic windows open, with the central one of monumental dimensions and divided by curved stone frames. The three sections of the facade are divided by four buttresses and topped by pinnacles with crockets. Of the various dependencies that extend north of the main facade, the former Paço dos Bispos is notable, an 18th-century Baroque building that has been occupied since 1917 by the Lamego Museum, where some of the best works of art from the Cathedral and other religious houses in the city are kept. The interior of the cathedral is divided into three naves separated into three sections and covered by groin vaults, resting on round arches and thick pillars. The ceilings were painted in the first half of the 18th century by the Italian painter-architect Nicolau Nasoni, revealing perspectival compositions of triumphant Baroque, with an architectural theme framing biblical episodes. In the side naves, various and sumptuous Baroque altars open. Of large dimensions, the main chapel was remodeled in the 18th century, with an altarpiece from the late 1700s combining marble and gilded woodcarving, as well as a neoclassical choir stall with a high backrest. The windows, doors, arches, and its two organs are decorated by showy gilded woodcarving structures. The side chapels are modeled by superb Baroque altarpiece carvings, by João Garcia Lopes and made in 1751. The main altar of the Blessed Sacrament has a laborious silver frontal, the work of a goldsmith from Porto and dated to the third quarter of the 18th century. In the high choir, you can admire a beautiful choir stall with paintings, a graceful work of 18th-century Baroque. The illuminated sacristy contains a scenic Calvary with rocaille woodcarving, the work of a regional workshop and dated 1757. The balanced cathedral cloister is a 16th-century undertaking, divided into two floors, the first formed by round arches and the upper one consisting of a gallery of simple columns supporting a porch. On the lower floor of the cloister, there are two magnificent chapels. The one dedicated to Santo António is covered by a gilded and polychrome carved altar, housing sacred 17th-century images. The Chapel of São Nicolau, completed in 1563, has part of the walls lined with 18th-century tiles alluding to the life of the saint, which are the work of a workshop in the capital. It also has a harmonious and lively 18th-century carved altarpiece. In this 16th-century chapel, D. Manuel de Noronha, one of the most prominent bishops of the diocese of Lamego, is buried. Opening hours may vary according to the schedule of masses, celebrations, and other religious events.

Lamego Castle

Regarding the antiquity of Lamego Castle, almost all authors consulted state that the castle "is a work of the Moors" and predates the founding of the nation. Of the original structure, only the keep (12th century), part of the old wall, and the cistern (13th century) remain. The keep, about twenty meters high, has a quadrangular plan with lighting slits on its faces, some of which were altered in the 16th century to be transformed into windows by order of the last Count of Marialva, D. Francisco Coutinho, perhaps to give the tower a residential function. The castle has a parade ground in the shape of an irregular hexagon, whose wall, with a perimeter of about ninety meters, is equipped with a wall walk, accessible from the north side by a flight of stairs. Between 1939 and 1940, when the centenary of the Foundation and Restoration of the nation was celebrated, the castle underwent restorations. The belfries and bells that existed at the top of the tower were removed to add battlements. Access to the old castle borough is through two gates opened in the wall. Those who enter from the north side pass through the arch called the “Porta dos Figos or Porta dos Fogos” (Gate of Figs or Fires), also previously called “Porta da Vila or Porta do Aguião” (Gate of the Village or the Aguião), while the gate on the opposite side is called "Porta do Sol" (Sun Gate). Next to the latter, we find an interesting heraldic house that belonged to the Cistercian Order and later became a foundling house. On the north side, there is still the Casa da Torre (Tower House), which now serves as the headquarters of the National Scout Corps. The City Council operated in this building until 1834, when it moved to the Casa da Relação (the current Bishop’s Palace). In the middle of Rua do Castelo, we can see the Chapel of Our Lady of Succour, on whose exterior wall there is an interesting tile panel with the inscription "N. S. do Coro 1671". Near this, there was another chapel dedicated to Saint Saviour, which is believed to have been the original cathedral. The Lamego Cistern, located outside the walls of the parade ground, is a rectangular and vaulted ashlar masonry with a ribbed ogive supported by wide bands resting on pillars. At about twenty meters long and ten wide, it is considered "one of the best examples of Portuguese castle cisterns" (Diretoria Geral dos Edifícios e Monumentos Nacionais cit. Laranjo, 1994, p.52). In November 2013, the Lamego Cistern reopened and saw the light of day again after undergoing major redevelopment work. Images, sounds, letters, experiences, and traditions are now available to the public in a space that now serves as a Memory Center. Upon entering the Cistern, visitors are immersed in the past, where multiple memories are projected continuously onto the stones that were once only spectators. A soundscape is associated with the space, recalling 800 years of daily sounds: the bell, the rooster, the stonemason, the town crier, the procession, weeping, and laughter. Lamego Castle is classified as a National Monument by Decree of June 16, 1910.