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FrançaisBom Jesus do Monte is the reason to come to Braga, and the other 21 things on this list are the reason to stay the night. The sanctuary sits 3 km (1.9 miles) outside the centre with a baroque staircase climbing 116 m (381 ft) up Mount Espinho, and it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 7 July 2019. Everything else, the cathedral, the palaces, the gardens, the Roman remains and the two cafés everyone in the city has been going to for a century, is inside a compact old town you can walk in a morning.
Braga is in the Minho, in the north of Portugal, and it is one of the oldest Christian cities in the world. The Romans founded it as Bracara Augusta more than 2,000 years ago, which is why it gets called the Portuguese Rome and why the Braga Romana festival takes over the centre at the end of every May. It is a city of churches, an hour by train from Porto, and it is far less visited than it deserves.
How to get to Braga
Getting to Braga from Porto takes about an hour on the urban train, which is why most people come for the day when they should come for two. CP runs trains from Porto São Bento and Campanhã to Braga through the day, and the station is a 10-minute walk from the historic centre. From Lisbon it is roughly three and a half hours by long-distance train, so Braga is a stop on a northern trip rather than a day out of the capital.
For Bom Jesus, take a city bus from the centre out to the foot of the hill and then either the stairs or the funicular. If you are driving, there is parking at the top of the sanctuary as well as at the bottom.
To reach the things outside the city, Tibães, Peneda-Gerês and Lindoso, you want either a car or a tour. A guided day tour of Braga and the surrounding area is the simplest way to cover them without hiring one.
22 things to do in Braga
The 22 things below run from the sanctuary on the hill down into the city and then out into the Minho, so the list doubles as an order to do them in. Numbers 1 to 4 are the ones to do if you only have half a day.
1. Climb the staircase at Bom Jesus do Monte
Bom Jesus do Monte is the most famous thing in Braga and the climb is the point of it. The sanctuary stands on Mount Espinho 3 km (1.9 miles) outside the centre, and its whitewashed baroque staircase rises 116 m (381 ft) in about 577 steps, making it one of the most photographed stairways in Portugal.
The staircase is not decoration, it is a route. It is laid out as a Via Crucis, with chapels along the way showing the Passion, and the upper flights are organised around the Five Senses and then the Three Virtues, each with its own fountain and allegorical statues. You are meant to read it as you climb, and knowing that changes the walk completely.
At the top is the church, built between 1784 and 1811 to a design by Carlos Amarante, and one of the first neoclassical churches in Portugal. The whole sanctuary took more than 600 years to develop and belongs to the European tradition of Sacri Monti, sacred mountains built to evoke Jerusalem, which is what UNESCO inscribed it for in 2019.
Behind the church there is a park with walking paths, grottoes and a lake you can take a rowing boat out on, and the view back over Braga is the other reward.
2. Ride the Bom Jesus funicular
The Bom Jesus funicular is the world’s oldest water-balanced funicular still running on its original system, and riding it is a better story than climbing the stairs. It opened on 25 March 1882 and it works without a motor: water is pumped into a tank under the upper car until it outweighs the lower one, gravity does the rest, and the water is emptied at the bottom.
The line is 274 m long on a gradient of about 30% and the ride takes three minutes. It was designed by the Portuguese engineer Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard, the same engineer behind Lisbon’s Glória, Bica and Lavra funiculars and the Santa Justa lift.
A single costs €2.50 and a return €4.00. The sensible plan is to ride up and walk down, which gives you the machine, the view and the staircase without the climb.
3. Braga Cathedral
Braga Cathedral is the oldest cathedral in Portugal and the seat of the Archbishop of Braga, who holds the title of Primate of the Spains. Construction began in 1070, before Portugal existed as a kingdom, and the building is Romanesque at its core with Gothic, Manueline and baroque work layered on top over the following six centuries. It has been a national monument since 1910.
Two things inside are worth the ticket. The treasury museum holds the cathedral’s accumulated art and metalwork, and the upper choir has two facing baroque organs and heavily gilded woodwork that you can only see on the tour.
4. Pass through the Arco da Porta Nova
The Arco da Porta Nova is the ceremonial gateway into Braga’s old town and the arch every visitor photographs. A gate has stood on the spot since the medieval city walls, and the arch you walk through now is the 18th-century baroque and neoclassical rebuild, with the city’s coat of arms and a statue of Our Lady above it. It was where the keys of the city were handed to important arrivals.
Look up as you pass under it. The stonework on the underside is the part most people miss.
5. Museu de Arqueologia D. Diogo de Sousa
The D. Diogo de Sousa archaeology museum holds the finds from Braga and the whole northern region, arranged in chronological order from prehistory through the Roman city. Jewellery, pottery, coins, tools and epigraphy fill the galleries, and it is the place to go if you want the Bracara Augusta layer of Braga rather than the baroque one. It runs events through the year, so check the calendar before you go.
6. Visit the sanctuary of Our Lady of Sameiro
Sameiro is Braga’s second hilltop sanctuary and the second most visited Marian shrine in Portugal after Fátima. The neoclassical church was built in the 19th century, it carries a large white dome visible from most of the city, and inside there is a silver tabernacle on the main altar with an image of the patron.
Go for the view even if the art does not interest you. Sameiro sits higher than Bom Jesus and looks out over Braga, the Minho and, on a clear day, a very long way north.
7. Spend time at Igreja de São Marcos
The Igreja de São Marcos is the 18th-century baroque church attached to the old São Marcos hospital, and it is the one with the statues on the roofline. Life-size figures of the apostles stand along the exterior and two large towers set it apart from the other churches in the centre. Inside are relics of St Mark.
8. Visit the Igreja de Santa Cruz
The Igreja de Santa Cruz is the baroque church of the Holy Cross, and its facade and the square in front of it are among the most photographed corners of the old town. Inside there is a gilded altarpiece, an organ, a carved pulpit and glazed tilework. A church in San Jose, California, was modelled on it.
9. Stroll around Jardim de Santa Bárbara
The Jardim de Santa Bárbara is the formal garden beside the Episcopal Palace, and it is where you go when you have seen enough churches. Clipped hedges in geometric beds, dense planting and the ruins of the medieval palace it grew up against make it the prettiest small space in Braga. A statue of Saint Barbara stands on the fountain in the middle.
Go in the late afternoon, when the light comes across the palace wall.
10. See the Chapel of São Frutuoso
The Chapel of São Frutuoso is a 7th-century Visigothic chapel and one of the very few that survive in Portugal. It stands in the Real parish just outside Braga, on the site of a Roman temple, and it is built on a Greek cross plan, which is what makes it so unusual this far west. It sits beside the Convent of São Francisco.
11. Take in the Palácio do Raio
The Palácio do Raio is the blue-tiled palace on Rua do Raio and the finest piece of André Soares’ work in the city, late baroque going into rococo. It has been restored, and ten rooms are open, holding paintings, clothing, documents and furniture. The main staircase is lined in blue and white azulejos and the ceilings are the thing to look up at in every room.
12. See the religious art at the Museu Pio XII
The Museu Pio XII holds one of the largest collections of religious art in Portugal, and it was assembled by one man. A priest founded it in 1957 after a lifetime of collecting, and it now runs in three parts: an archaeology and art section covering the history of humanity, a gallery of the Portuguese portrait painter Henrique Medina, and the medieval tower.
13. Have lunch at Café Vianna, the oldest café in Braga
Café Vianna has been on the Praça da República since 1858 and it is the café Braga has been arguing in ever since. Nobles, artists and activists used it as a meeting point, and the officers who launched the 1926 coup that ended the First Republic met here. Today it does brunch, lunch, coffee, cake and snacks under the arcade, and the location on the square is the reason to sit outside.
14. Stand in the Roman city at the Termas Romanas do Alto da Cividade
Braga was Bracara Augusta, capital of a Roman province, and the Alto da Cividade site is where you can still see it. The excavated public baths sit on the hillside above the centre, with the remains of the Roman theatre beside them, and interpretation panels explain how the complex worked. It is the clearest answer to the question of why Braga gets called the Portuguese Rome, and almost nobody goes.
15. Visit the Museu dos Biscainhos
The Museu dos Biscainhos is a 17th-century noble house you can walk through as a house rather than as a gallery. It was the residence of Dr Constantino Ribeiro do Lago, a knight and judge of Braga, built by Basque stonemasons and finished in 1699, and its collection runs to furniture, ceramics, glassware and Portuguese clocks and watches.
The gardens behind it are the part to leave time for, and they are free of the crowds that the churches in the centre pick up.
16. Have coffee at A Brasileira
A Brasileira is Braga’s other institutional café, on the corner of the Largo do Barão de São Martinho, and the terrace is the point. It is the place to sit between museums and churches and watch the city go past, which in a university town of this size is a genuinely varied show.
17. Watch the world go by in the Praça da República
The Praça da República is Braga’s main square, and locals call it the Arcada after the arcade along its side. It dates to the Middle Ages, when it was where the city’s goods were traded, and it now sits traffic-free between the São Francisco and Barão de São Martinho squares and the Avenida da Liberdade, lined with cafés.
Come at sundown. That is when the square fills and when Braga stops feeling like a day trip. For the city with an explanation attached, a guided city tour of Braga covers the centre in half a day.
18. Go to an SC Braga game at the quarry stadium
The Estádio Municipal de Braga is the reason to go to a football match here even if you do not care about football. Eduardo Souto de Moura, who later won the Pritzker Prize, built it into a disused granite quarry on Monte Castro for Euro 2004, and it has stands on only two sides: one against the rock face, one opposite, with the roof slung between them on steel cables modelled on Inca rope bridges. Behind one goal there is bare quarry wall and behind the other, open air and the view out.
It holds about 30,150 people, which is a normal size for a Portuguese club ground and nowhere near the largest in the country. What is unusual is the building, not the capacity. SC Braga are one of Portugal’s stronger clubs behind Porto, Benfica and Sporting, and the stadium is in the north of the city, reachable by bus.
19. See the rococo at the São Martinho de Tibães monastery
The Monastery of São Martinho de Tibães is a 20-minute drive from the centre and it is where Portuguese rococo was worked out. Founded in the 11th century, it became the mother house of the Benedictine order in Portugal and Brazil, and through the 17th and 18th centuries its workshops experimented on their own church, which is why the gilded interior looks like a laboratory that got out of hand.
The work done here shaped baroque and rococo decoration across Portugal and its colonies. The grounds and the terraced gardens are worth as long as the church.
20. Hike in Peneda-Gerês National Park
Peneda-Gerês is Portugal’s only national park and it starts about 40 minutes’ drive from Braga. Inside are granite villages, waterfalls, natural pools, long ridge trails and the espigueiros, the stone grain stores raised on legs that look like a row of small tombs. It has some of the strongest hiking in northern Portugal and it needs a car.
21. Visit the village of Lindoso
Lindoso is a granite village on the Spanish border inside Peneda-Gerês, above the river Lima, and it is where the espigueiros are at their most striking: several dozen of them lined up on the rock beneath the castle. The 13th-century castle below them is a national monument and was fought over in the Restoration wars with Spain. Lindoso also makes a good trailhead for walking in the park.
22. Taste some Vinho Verde
Vinho Verde is the wine of the Minho, and Braga sits in the middle of the region. The name means green wine, and the green refers to the landscape and to how young the wine is drunk rather than to the colour of the grapes: it is released within months of the harvest, which is where the freshness and the slight prickle come from. Most of it is white, though red and rosé vinho verde both exist.
The demarcated region is one of the oldest in the world and winemaking is one of the Minho’s main industries. Quinta visits and tastings run from Braga, and it is the easiest wine region in Portugal to drink your way through without a plan.
Where to stay in Braga
Staying in Braga means choosing between the historic centre and the modern city, and the centre wins for a short trip because everything on this list except the last four items is walkable from it. The Avenida da Liberdade and the streets around the Praça da República put you five minutes from the cathedral, the gardens and both cafés, and 10 minutes from the station.
Braga’s larger hotels, including Meliá Braga Hotel & Spa and Vila Galé Collection Braga, sit slightly out from the core, and the centre is mostly guesthouses and apartments in old buildings. Compare places to stay in Braga on walking distance to the Arco da Porta Nova rather than on price alone, because the difference between the centre and the ring road is a 25-minute walk each way.
If you are pairing Braga with the coast, our guide to walking Porto’s hilly streets covers the city an hour down the line, and trains and coaches across Portugal connect both to the rest of the country.
Don’t forget travel insurance
Travel insurance covers a cancelled trip, illness or injury abroad, and sometimes stolen or broken electronics. I make sure I am covered on every trip.
SafetyWing offers flexible plans you can sign up for once you are already travelling, which most policies do not allow. They were the first travel insurer to cover COVID, and when I caught it they reimbursed my expenses without an argument.
Things to do in Braga FAQ
Is Braga worth visiting?
Braga is worth visiting for Bom Jesus do Monte alone, and worth a night for the old town around it. It has the oldest cathedral in Portugal, a Roman bath complex, two 19th-century cafés still in daily use and a football stadium built into a quarry, and it costs noticeably less than Porto an hour down the line.
How many days do you need in Braga?
One full day covers Bom Jesus and the old town, and two days let you add Tibães, Sameiro and a trip into Peneda-Gerês. Most people come from Porto for the day, which is enough for numbers 1 to 17 on this list but not for anything outside the city.
How do you get from Porto to Braga?
CP urban trains run from Porto São Bento and Campanhã to Braga in about an hour, through the day, and Braga station is a 10-minute walk from the historic centre. Driving takes a similar time on the A3.
How many steps are there at Bom Jesus do Monte?
The baroque staircase at Bom Jesus climbs 116 m (381 ft) in about 577 steps, and step counts between 573 and 583 appear in different sources depending on where they start counting. The funicular alongside it covers the same climb in three minutes.
What is Braga famous for?
Braga is famous for Bom Jesus do Monte, for being one of the oldest Christian cities in the world, and for its churches, which is why it is called the Portuguese Rome. It was the Roman city of Bracara Augusta, it holds Portugal’s oldest cathedral, and it is the centre of the Vinho Verde region.
WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips
The 5 tips below come from re-checking every date, price and figure on this page against the sanctuary, the city council and UNESCO in September 2026, and each one corrects something the guidebooks get wrong.
- Ride the Bom Jesus funicular up and walk down. A single is €2.50 and a return €4.00, so the return only pays if you plan to ride both ways, and walking down the 577 steps is the direction that lets you actually look at the chapels and fountains. The lift has run on water ballast and gravity since 1882 and has no motor.
- Read the staircase rather than climbing it. The upper flights are laid out as the Five Senses and then the Three Virtues, each with its own fountain and statues, on a Via Crucis route through the Passion chapels. Nobody tells you this at the bottom and it is the difference between a stair climb and the reason the site is UNESCO-listed.
- Do not go to Braga stadium expecting one of the world’s biggest grounds. It holds about 30,150, which is ordinary. What is extraordinary is that Souto de Moura built it into a granite quarry with stands on only two sides and the roof hung on steel cables. Go for the architecture.
- Go to the Roman baths at Alto da Cividade. Braga was Bracara Augusta and the excavated baths and theatre are the only place you can stand in the Roman city, which is the whole basis of the “Portuguese Rome” nickname that every guide repeats without showing you anything Roman.
- Stay the night rather than day-tripping from Porto. The Praça da República fills up at sundown and the last convenient trains back to Porto leave before that happens. Braga rooms cost meaningfully less than Porto rooms an hour away.
About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, who travelled the Minho and northern Portugal from Porto, including Guimarães and Bom Jesus do Monte above Braga. The team covers Portugal for independent travellers, including the tours, hotels, trains and wine regions worth booking, and re-checks the dates, prices and opening arrangements on this page when they change.
