Coimbra University & Wine

Every night for 250 years, staff at the Joanine Library have draped leather sheets over the tables. Not to protect them from students — to protect them from the colony of bats living in the Baroque ceiling. The bats are pest control: they eat the insects that would destroy 70,000 irreplaceable books. King Dinis I founded this university in 1290. Students still wear black capes and still rip them at graduation — a 700-year-old ritual called the rasganço. Time your visit for Queima das Fitas in May: 4,000 caped students singing fado at midnight outside the 12th-century cathedral. No wine region on earth has a better soundtrack.

What to do there

5 things to do

1. 1 Descend into the Roman Tunnels Beneath Three Civilizations History · Price: low

   Where: Museu Nacional Machado de Castro, Largo Dr. José Rodrigues, Coimbra. Tue–Sun 10am–6pm (last entry 5:30pm). €6 adults, €3 reduced. Note for 2026: permanent galleries closed for renovation — the cryptoporticus IS open.

   What: You are about to walk into a 1st-century Roman underground gallery — the cryptoporticus of ancient Aeminium — that was carved to support the public forum above it. The Romans built it under Augustus; then a 12th-century bishop built his palace directly on top of the Roman ruins; then the museum was built on top of the bishop's palace. Three complete civilizations, stacked vertically. Gaius Sevius Lupus was probably the architect. The tunnel is so naturally cool and dark that the Romans also used it as a massive underground food store. You can still feel why.

   How: Buy your ticket at the entrance and tell the staff you are specifically here for the cryptoporticus ("o criptopórtico"). The entrance to the tunnels is on the lower floor. Walk the full length — the vaulted passageways still have Roman sculptures placed at intervals where the original columns stood. Look for the point where the wall transitions from Roman stone to medieval masonry — you are standing at the exact seam where two eras meet. The Coimbra University hill directly above you was built on these same foundations.

   Backup: If the museum is unexpectedly closed, visit the Largo Dr. José Rodrigues square outside — you can see the medieval bishop's palace exterior and read the Roman Aeminium interpretation panels on the wall.

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2. 2 Find the Bats That Have Protected 200,000 Books for 300 Years Adventure · Price: moderate

   Where: Biblioteca Joanina (Joanina Library), University of Coimbra Alta campus. Access via the main university ticket (€12.50, includes library) or library-only (€13.50). Photography strictly forbidden inside the Noble Floor.

   What: This Baroque library was built 1717–1728 under King João V. Every night, a colony of European free-tailed bats and soprano pipistrelles emerges from behind the 300-year-old gold-leaf oak bookshelves. They hunt and eat the beetles, moths, and silverfish that would otherwise chew through the 200,000 manuscript volumes. The bats have been doing this since at least the 19th century — probably since the library first opened. Nobody brought them. They arrived on their own and the librarians recognized a perfect arrangement. The problem of bat droppings was solved in the 1800s by purchasing large leather sheets from Russia. Every single night, librarians drape those cloths over every table and shelf before closing. Every single morning, they remove them, dust away the droppings, and prepare the library for readers. This has been the routine for at least 200 years. Nothing has replaced it because nothing works better.

   How: Book your timed entry online at least a day in advance (visit.uc.pt) — the 50-person cap means slots disappear. When you enter the three interconnected rooms, look past the trompe l'oeil ceiling paintings by Simões Ribeiro (1723) — they create the optical illusion that the ceiling is higher than it really is — and focus on the lowest shelves behind the oak ladders. That darkness between the bottom shelf and the floor: that is where the bats sleep during the day, tucked behind books that haven't been touched in centuries.

   Backup: If online slots are sold out, arrive at 9am when the day's remaining tickets are released in person at the University ticket office (Paço das Escolas).

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3. 3 Watch a Student Tear Their Ribbon in the Grand Courtyard History · Free

   Where: Pátio das Escolas, University of Coimbra Alta. Free to enter through the Porta Férrea (Iron Gate) on Rua Larga. Open year-round during daylight.

   What: Every student at Coimbra wears a black cape — the capa negra — a tradition that started here nearly 500 years ago, when the university adopted the clerical robes as academic dress. The colored ribbons sewn onto the costume identify each student's faculty. When a student completes a major milestone — end of first cycle, graduation — they tear their ribbon. It's not done in a ceremony hall with a diploma. It happens in these corridors and courtyards, in front of friends and strangers, in the open. The tearing is the ceremony.

   How: Stand in the Pátio das Escolas, the main courtyard, and simply watch the students crossing the square. You'll almost certainly see capa negras — this is the oldest active university in Portugal (chartered March 1, 1290 by King Denis). The 34-meter clock tower above you, built in the early 1700s without a roof so it could be used for astronomical observation, is the heartbeat of this place. If you visit in late May (May 23–31), you'll be here during Queima das Fitas — the Burning of the Ribbons festival, one of the largest student celebrations in Europe, first organized in the 1850s. Students burn half their ribbon in embers while writing their hardest years onto the cloth — leaving those years in the fire.

   Backup: Even with no students present, the courtyard itself is free and extraordinary — step up to the balustrade on the river-facing side for the full view over the Mondego River and the terracotta rooftops of lower Coimbra.

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4. 4 Ask Abel for the Baga That Tastes Like Three Centuries of Waiting Wine · Price: low

   Where: Garrafeira Baga, Rua Simões de Castro 169, Coimbra. Mon–Fri 10am–8pm, Sat 10am–3pm. Phone: +351 919 019 397.

   What: Abel Almeida — the sommelier who opened this wine bar in 2022 with his partner Bruna — is one of the most knowledgeable Baga specialists in Coimbra. Baga is the grape of this region: it has the thickest skin of any major Portuguese grape, absurdly high tannin in youth, and a structural acidity that lets the best bottles age 20 years or more. Luís Pato — "the King of Baga" — produced his first Baga in 1980, destemmed it (revolutionary at the time), aged it in French oak (unheard of in Bairrada), and changed what the world thought this grape could do. Here's the regional secret nobody tells you: in Bairrada, the same grapevines that produce Baga also feed the ovens that roast the leitão — the famous suckling pig. Pruned vine wood is used as oven fuel. You eat meat cooked by the same plant that makes your wine. And locals drink it with sparkling Espumante, not still red — the bubbles cut through the richness of the pig fat and reset your palate for the next bite.

   How: Walk in and say "Quero provar um Baga — qual é a sua recomendação?" ("I want to taste a Baga — what do you recommend?"). Abel will do the rest. Ask him specifically about Luís Pato's single-vineyard bottlings and why aged Baga changes from stern and tannic to silk and tobacco. If you plan to eat afterward, ask which restaurant nearby serves the best leitão in the city — he'll know.

   Backup: If Garrafeira Baga is closed, SOMM Wine Atelier in the city center stocks Bairrada wines and has knowledgeable staff.

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5. 5 Stand in the Room Where 2,000-Year-Old Mosaics Show Bacchus Hunting History · Price: low · Optional

   Where: Conimbriga Roman Ruins and Museum, Condeixa-a-Nova, 16km south of Coimbra. Daily 10am–6pm (last entry 5:15pm). Closed Jan 1, Easter Sunday, May 1, Dec 25. €4.50 adults; free under 12; FREE on Sundays after 2pm. Bus from Largo da Portagem in Coimbra: 9:30am and 12:30pm on weekdays, 12:30pm on weekends. Return bus at 1:25pm / 1:55pm weekends. Or Uber/Bolt ~€15–20 one way.

   What: This is the largest and best-preserved Roman city in Portugal, occupied from 139 BCE to 468 CE. The Romans who built the forum at Aeminium — the tunnels you walked under this morning — also walked here. In the **House of Fountains** (Casa dos Repuxos), 569 square meters of mosaic floor survive fully intact under a protective cover. The hunting scenes show dogs with individual faces. A Bacchus scene. Perseus. The four seasons as human figures. Every tile still in place after 2,000 years. Then walk to the defensive wall built in the 3rd–4th century. The Romans, under increasing Visigoth pressure, cut that wall straight THROUGH the House of Fountains — you can see where they tore up their own mosaic floors to lay the foundation stones of the new wall. They sacrificed Bacchus to survive. They lost anyway. The Visigoths took Conimbriga in 468 CE, and the Romans fled north to Aeminium — the hill where Coimbra now stands.

   How: Head straight to the House of Fountains first (signposted immediately from the entrance). Drop €0.50 in the coin slot in the garden at the center — it activates the original Roman fountain system for 2 minutes, and suddenly the whole ruined garden comes alive with water exactly as it did in the 2nd century. Then find the north defensive wall and look for the point where the mosaic floor simply stops under the stonework. That's the moment.

   Backup: If you can't make the day trip to Conimbriga, the Machado de Castro Museum in Coimbra has excavated Roman objects on display that came directly from Aeminium — same civilization, same people, right under the city you're standing in.

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Insider tips

• The Joanine Library is one of the world's most beautiful

• Students in black capes gather at Sé Velha at night

• Queima das Fitas (May) is a massive wine-fueled celebration

• Bairrada wine region is 30 minutes away