2 stops in walking order

Historic Site

Viseu, officially the City of Viseu, is a city and municipality in the Central Region of Portugal and the capital of the district of the same name, with a population of 103,502 inhabitants in the entire municipality, and center of the Viseu Dão Lafões intermunicipal community, with 267,633 inhabitants. Settled during the period of the early Iberian Castro culture, the territory of Viseu was occupied by a series of other peoples including the Romans, Suebians, Visigoths and Moors. During the Roman occupation of Iberia, Viriathus, the rebel leader of the Lusitanians, is assumed to have lived for a time in the vicinity. During the Middle Ages, the city often served as a seat for Visigothic nobles (such as King Roderic), and based in the Chronica Gothorum is one of several probable birthplaces for Afonso Henriques, first King of Portugal. Viseu is a regional economic hub with a strong wine industry and is the seat of the international conglomerate Visabeira. The city is also a cultural center, home to the nationally acclaimed Grão Vasco Museum, the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Viseu, and a center for higher learning institutions, namely the Catholic University of Portugal and the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu.

~20 min at this stop

Museum

The Grão Vasco Museum (Museu de Grão Vasco) is an art museum located in the city of Viseu, in Portugal. The museum is named after one of the most important Portuguese painters of the Renaissance, Vasco Fernandes (also known as the Grão Vasco), who had his workshop in Viseu. The museum, founded in 1916, occupies the building of the old Seminary, located beside Viseu Cathedral. The building, began in the late 16th century in Mannerist style, has had its interior recently modernised by Porto architect Eduardo Souto de Moura. The main exhibits of the museum are the painted altarpieces executed for Viseu Cathedral during the Renaissance. These include the main altarpiece, executed by a workshop that included the young Vasco Fernandes and was apparently led by Francisco Henriques, as well as later altarpieces by a mature Vasco Fernandes (including the Last Supper triptych) and his collaborator, Gaspar Vaz. The artistic significance of these altarpieces turn the Grão Vasco Museum into one of the most important art museums in Portugal. The collections also include metalwork, tapestry and sculpture.

~20 min at this stop