Portugal's oldest city — baroque stairways and Minho roasted veal
Braga is the oldest city in Portugal — older than Lisbon by centuries and far less visited. Founded by the Romans as Bracara Augusta in 16 BCE, it has been an archbishopric for 2,000 years and retains a medieval street grid, an extraordinary concentration of Baroque churches, and a food culture centred on the roasted meats, bread soups, and bean stews of the Minho region. Bom Jesus do Monte — the great Baroque pilgrimage staircase above the city — is one of the most photographed monuments in the Iberian Peninsula, and the surrounding Vinho Verde wine country is the most misunderstood great wi…
Bracara Augusta was founded in 16 BCE as an Augustan colonial city and became capital of the Roman province of Gallaecia — the forum and baths are still being excavated beneath modern streets. Braga was the seat of the first Christian bishop in Iberia (3rd century) and has remained an archbishopric continuously since, making it the ecclesiastical capital of Portugal in fact if not title. The Moors barely touched Braga; Fernando I of León captured it in 1040 and it became a major stop on the Camino de Santiago.