Largo da Portagem has been Coimbra's commercial gateway since medieval times, and the statue presiding over it represents a man locals cheerfully call the Monk Killer.

Joaquim António de Aguiar never actually killed anyone. Born in Coimbra and honoured here with a bronze likeness, he was the 19th-century politician who in 1834 nationalised every monastery in Portugal, ending the livelihoods of countless friars in a single legislative stroke.

The square faces the Mondego, Portugal's longest entirely domestic river, and the windows of Pastelaria Briosa, whose pastel de Tentúgal recipes remain a guarded secret. A mural on the Rua dos Gatos steps shows Coimbra students in their black cloaks singing Fado under dictatorship.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours begin here to unpack the city's Fado traditions, trace its medieval Jewish community through surviving streets, and follow pilgrim arrows that send walkers onward to Fátima or Santiago de Compostela.