Leiria: from the Lis to the castle: a self-guided walk
By Alleytale
Old Leiria, from the river up to the castle hill
Leiria's old centre spreads between the river and the castle hill, so the walk climbs from the water to the royal palace, and each stop adds a layer to the town's story.
The stops
This mill building stands on the left bank of the Lis, near the Caniços bridge, and dates from the medieval era. Paper was its trade, though in the 20th century it went back to grinding grain and was also once an olive oil press. Today it is a museum about paper, flour and olive oil.
Photo: Jaimrsilva — CC BY-SA 4.0 The museum fills the former Convent of Santo Agostinho, renovated to hold collections that had been spread across several venues in the city for 97 years. Its displays include the Guimarota fossils of primitive mammals, about 150 million years old, and the Menino do Lapedo, the fossil of a child found in the Lapedo Valley in 1998. They also follow about 5,000 years of history, including the building of the castle and Leiria's role as a diocesan city.
Photo: Threeohsix — CC BY-SA 4.0 Leiria's market used to stand in Praça Rodrigues Lobo, and when it had to move, the architect Ernesto Korrodi, who had settled in Leiria in 1894, designed this building in 1921. It opened in 1931 and served as the city's central commercial hub for about half a century. Today it is a cultural centre with a theatre and exhibition rooms, and a café and restaurants under its old arcades.
Photo: Nunorojordao — Public domain This former Mercy Church was built on the site of the medieval Jewish community's synagogue, and it is now the Leiria Intercultural Dialogue Centre, which uses the book as its central motif. In 1492 a printer called Samuel de Ortas settled in the medieval Jewish quarter, and in 1496 he printed the Almanach Perpetuum, a work by Abraão Zacuto described as decisive for the Portuguese Discoveries.
Photo: Threeohsix — CC BY-SA 4.0 Leiria became a diocese in 1545, and the cathedral was built between 1550 and 1574 to a plan by the architect Afonso Álvares. Its bell tower stands apart from the church, on an old bastion of the Portas do Sol, and legend says the earlier tower did not carry the bells' sound to the castle hill. A local saying goes that Leiria has a tower that is not a cathedral and a cathedral that has no tower.
Photo: Threeohsix — CC BY-SA 4.0 This church was probably founded around 1176 and was the second church built in medieval Leiria, after Santa Maria da Pena inside the castle walls. When Leiria became a diocese in 1545 it served as the cathedral until the new Sé opened in 1574, and in 1835 citizens turned it into a theatre. Look at the west portal, where the four archivolts carry heavily eroded beak-head figures whose meaning is debated.
Photo: Anitsircana — CC BY-SA 3.0 Afonso Henriques built the castle as a defence against the Arabs, and King Dinis, who lived here, ordered the keep in 1324. The royal hall of the palace John I built inside the walls opens onto a Gothic loggia of eight arches with a panorama over the city. The architect Ernesto Korrodi directed the castle's restoration in the early 20th century.
Photo: Sergei Gussev — CC BY 2.0
Hear the full story as you walk, or create your own walk, in the Alleytale app.