Braga, from the top of the 5,070 steps of its Sanctuary
With five very specific notes we try to satisfy some of your weaknesses. The rest –admissible or not- we leave them to you.
SYBARITE?
As you already know in almost any coffee shop in Portugal you can find a good espresso . But, none in Braga as in ** A Brasileira **, not only because of the quality of its grain, brought from Brazil (hence its name), but because of the authenticity of the place, a building on the corner of a pedestrian street covered with beautiful tiles.
Its interior is preserved the same as when it was opened, in 1907 : with its wooden tables, leather chairs, a huge old coffee pot, black and white photos…. and even a shoe shiner. The specialty is Portuguese strainer coffee, but if you already have a few or come over in the afternoon, you can throw a green wine from the area in a bottle , his other ace in the hole.
A Brasileira is the best place to start the day with a good breakfast and then take to the streets to explore the historic center of the city (you have a lot to see). Also, We give you a good tip: every morning, Adolfo de Azevedo , its owner, invites all customers who buy more than half a kilo of its takeaway product to a cup of coffee.
A Brasileira: the best of espressos
SMUG?
If so (and you are a man in Braga) your day could not have a better continuation than with a **perfect shave (with facial massage included)** in this barbershop a few meters above A Brasileira. From the same period as its decoration, it also has winks Belle Epoque that will take you back to the beginning of the 20th century. While they soap you sitting in the old hydraulic chair (or accompany your boyfriend to be smooth and handsome) you will be amazed looking at the mirrors, the mother-of-pearl brushes, the tiles, the sinks with golden taps and the cologne bottles that Manuel Matos , the owner of it, preserves it as if it were a small museum. The experience will cost you only 10 euros.
Barbearia Matos: the historic barbershop of Braga
ADDICTED TO CHALLENGES?
So we suggest you test your legs , that you park the car and go up to the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte, on Monte Espinho, the greatest jewel of the city, which hangs the World Heritage sign. 'barely' are 5,070 steps , but they become bearable because they are divided into a highly entertaining way of the cross, where fourteen stations - some chapels with life-size figures (quite disturbing, by the way) - represent episodes of the passion of Jesus.
To bridge this gap of 116 m you can return by funicular. And not just any, because this is the oldest in the Iberian Peninsula (from 1825) that continues to function through a water ballast system. Vertigo? Here was the other challenge.
Santuario do Bom Jesús do Monte: pilgrimage here is another story
IN LOVE WITH ART?
After the visit to the monastery, we return to the city again to satisfy your artistic concerns (and also a little so that you feel a little voyeur). We take you to the ** Museo Nogueira da Silva **, one of those museum-houses With each of its rooms and objects, it tells us about its owner, in this case a childless Portuguese bourgeois who, upon his death, bequeathed all his belongings to the University of Miño.
What will you find there? Collections of all kinds of antiques, books, sheet music, Flemish paintings from the 15th century, hundreds of pieces of Chinese porcelain from ancient dynasties, period furniture and, of course, a good sample of Portuguese tiles from the 17th to 18th centuries.
The museum also has a room with exhibitions of contemporary art, and a trellis garden, with sculptures of copies of famous people and French-style flower beds: a real delight.
Garden of the Nogueira da Silva Museum
CRAZY ABOUT FOOTBALL!
In this case we don't have to ask you. We know that you do like football. And yes you like the current architecture. That is why we do not conceive this capricious visit without paying a visit to the other cathedral of Braga: the municipal soccer stadium of SC Braga, one of the greats of the Portuguese league. The Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura, 2011 Pritzker Architecture Prize and 2013 Wolf Prize for the Arts, finished it in 2003. You will surely remember it because it was one of the venues for the 2004 European Championship (the most spectacular of them all): an amphitheater on the side of a rock, on the site of an old quarry. If you like it, visit the municipal market and the Monastery of Santa Maria do Bouro , whose construction and rehabilitation respectively bear the signature of the same architect.
The 'other' sanctuary: the soccer one
The center of Braga, between glass and tiles