The Venice of Portugal — moliceiro canal boats, Art Nouveau azulejo facades, and the world's most delicate egg-yolk sweets
Aveiro sits on a saltwater lagoon (the Ria de Aveiro) 70km south of Porto and is most famous for its moliceiros — brightly painted flat-bottomed boats originally used to harvest seaweed from the lagoon and now the city's most photographed feature. The city centre has an outsized concentration of Art Nouveau architecture, a legacy of wealth brought back by emigrants returning from Brazil in the late 19th century, and the tilework on the Rossio district facades is some of the finest in Portugal. Aveiro's signature sweet, ovos moles (thin wafer shells filled with egg-yolk cream in the shape of s…
Aveiro was a prosperous salt and cod-fishing port from the 13th century, but the city's golden age came in the late 19th century when emigrants who had made fortunes in Brazil returned and rebuilt the city in the Art Nouveau style then fashionable in Lisbon — leaving behind ornate tiled facades and decorated townhouses that now define the city's character. The Ria de Aveiro lagoon was Aveiro's economic engine for centuries: salt farming, cod fishing, and the harvesting of molicão (seaweed used as agricultural fertiliser) shaped both the landscape and the distinctive flat-bottomed moliceiro bo…