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If you would like to see a google map of Bragança and the surrounding area click here

We visited Bragança in November of 2007, it is situated in the north east corner of Portugal only about 30 minutes drive from the Spanish border. I know because having spent two days in Bragança we left on the motorbike on the N103 for Chaves, or so I thought, until I saw from a sign that said something like ‘Welcome to Spain’ we were crossing the Spanish border! We were on the correct road number but going north not west! Had there been any sign of the sun that day I would have realised my mistake. Rather than turn back we carried on and went on to Chaves and Guimaraes via Spain.

The countryside around Bragança is not dissimilar to the north of England, the climate also rather colder and wetter than we are used to in the south of Portugal and snow is not unusual in the winter. The old part of the town which is shown in three photographs below lies to the east of the newer part of the town and is close to the castle. The castle built in the 13th century by the Bragança family sits surrounded by a perfectly preserved medieval wall, which also surrounds the ‘Cidadela’ (a village consisting of a small group of white painted houses).

The Dukes of Bragança became monarchs of Portugal in 1640 following 60 years of Spanish domination. A Portuguese princess, Catherine of Bragança married England’s Charles 2nd.  The Bragança family were Kings of Portugal until 1910 when King Manuel II was forced to go into exile by the creation of the Portuguese Republic, his elder brother and father King Carlos were assassinated in 1908.

The present pretender to the Portuguese throne is Duarte Pio Duke of Bragança who was born in 1945, in 1950 Portugal repealed the law of exile against the Bragança family and the Duke moved back to Portugal with his mother, father and brothers in 1952. He was educated at the Military School in Lisbon and then the University of Lisbon where he received a degree in Agriculture and then went on to complete his education at the University of Geneva. From 1968 to 1971 he served in the Air Force as a helicopter pilot during the war in Angola. In 1995 he married Isabel de Herédia, they have three children, two boys and a girl.