Coimbra

Coimbra, officially the City of Coimbra, is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2021 census was 140,796, in an area of around 319.40 square kilometres (123.3 sq mi). It is the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto, and Braga, and it is the largest city of the district of Coimbra and the Central Region, and about 460,000 people live in its intermunicipal community. Among the many archaeological structures dating back to the Roman era, when Coimbra was the settlement of Aeminium, are its well-preserved aqueduct and cryptoporticus. Similarly, buildings from the period when Coimbra was the capital of Portugal (from 1131 to 1255) still remain. During the late Middle Ages, with its decline as the political centre of the Kingdom of Portugal, Coimbra began to evolve into a major cultural centre. This was in large part helped by the establishment of the first Portuguese university in 1290 in Lisbon and its relocation to Coimbra in 1308, making it the oldest academic institution in the Portuguese-speaking world. Apart from attracting many European and international students, the university is visited by many tourists for its monuments and history. Its historical buildings were classified as a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 2013: "Coimbra offers an outstanding example of an integrated university city with a specific urban typology as well as its own ceremonial and cultural traditions that have been kept alive through the ages."