Top 10 Sights & Landmarks in Amarante, Northern Portugal

The former mother Church of Real (replaced in 1938) is a 14th-century building. The main façade reveals a period that was already announcing the arrival of the Gothic style: the portal has a slightly broken arch with no tympanum; the columns are slender and are topped by capitals whose sculpture is not so bulky or expressive. On the south façade there is still an arcosolium with a tomb, whose lid shows a carved sword. Inside, we can still see Romanesque consecration crosses inscribed in a circle.

Once a monastic Church, in the 16th century, Telões was already secularised and was under the Collegiate of Guimarães, who held its right of patronage. This may explain the artistic campaign that led to the covering of the walls of the nave and the chancel with frescoes, from which only a fragment, depicting the birth of Jesus Christ (Nativity), remains. Built at the turn of the 12th to the 13th century, it underwent deep transformations over the following centuries. This Church is part of the Route of the Romanesque.

This small Church was built in the 12th century, fitting in the category of late Romanesque style. It was the seat of a female monastery that was probably founded by someone from the Gundares lineage. It was secularised in 1455 by D. Fernando Guerra, the archbishop of Braga. Its primitive Romanesque structure has undergone very few changes over the centuries. The outer archivolt of the main portal shows a chequered motif, which was very popular in Portuguese Romanesque style. This Church is part of the Route of the Romanesque.

Located on one of the two traffic channels that connect Amarante to the inner Tras-os-Montes and Alto Douro regions, the Bridge of Fundo de Rua, built over the river Ovelha, is a robust stone structure, possibly built in the 17th century in order to replace an older crossing.