Free Walking Tour Aveiro along the Azulejos

What will we visit on this tour?

• Meeting point:

  R. de Coimbra 19, 3810-085 Aveiro, Po...

  R. de Coimbra 19, 3810-085 Aveiro, Portugal

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  Praça da República near the statue of José Estevão. Caring a TonyWalker pin.

• 1
  Outside visit

  Cámara Municipal de Aveiro

  Welcome and tour introduction. Pombaline-style palace from the late 18th century. With the coat of arms of the Kingdom and the coat of arms of the municipality of Aveiro. We will see the Aveirense Theatre, an Art Nouveau building and the statue of José Estevão, which will be contextualised.

• 2
  Outside visit

  Iglesia de la Misericordia de Aveiro

  Exterior and interior views if open. Active church with free entry. Catholic temple built in the transitional decades between the 16th and 17th centuries. Mannerist (Renaissance) style with Baroque elements in the interior decoration. The Seventeenth-century pattern tiles that cover the walls of the nave are perhaps the most impressive element of the monument, which belongs to the Santa Casa da Misericórdia, an organisation with origins in the Middle Ages.

• 3
  Outside visit

  Rua Direita

  The "Direita" streets in Portugal usually correspond to the main street of the old town. This is the case in Aveiro. Walking along it gives us the opportunity to talk about some of the heritage pieces and also to present the history of Portuguese pavement, which in Aveiro is linked to the tradition of salt and sea that shaped the city.

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• 4
  Outside visit

  Igreja de São João Evangelista / Igreja Carmelita de Aveiro

  Located in Marquês de Pombal Square, this church, built at the end of the 17th century as part of the convent of the Barefoot Carmelite order, is still one of Aveiro's lesser-known gems. Abandoned for decades, it reopened in 2021 after extensive restoration, giving visitors back a small but splendid Baroque jewel. Figurative tiles from the early 18th century, gilded woodwork, paintings and sacred sculpture fill the once religious space that is now part of the municipal museum. Each detail is a discovery.

• 5
  Outside visit

  Casa de Santa Zita

  This 19th century manor house stands out for its façade with eight panels and a pediment of hand-drawn and painted tiles, with various allegories, mainly of the four seasons. Originally owned by the Viscounts of Granja, it now houses the Casa de Santa Zita, a Catholic organisation for the protection of maids.

• 6
  Outside visit

  Azulejos da Sapataria Leitão

  Advertising tiles promoting the shoe shop, painted in the 1920s. The three panels decorating the façade, signed by the painter, are protected as local heritage.

• 7
  Outside visit

  Praça do Milénio

  In this square, the centre of the parish of Glória, we'll stop and look around at the statue of Blessed Joana of Portugal, known locally as Princess Santa Joana, the Convent of Jesus of the D5ominican Sisters, the municipal museum where the tomb of the Blessed, who died there in the 15th century, is located. The façade of the Church of São Domingos, now the Cathedral of Aveiro, will also be visible.

• 8
  Outside visit

  Cemitério Central de Aveiro

  Opened in 1860, this cemetery is characterised by a series of funerary crypts and tombs, many of them in revivalist (neo-Gothic, neoclassical) and art nouveau styles, some of them protected heritage sites. Essential for understanding the history of Aveiro in the transition from the 19th to the 20th century, its main highlight is an Art Nouveu statue by Arthur Prat called O Último Alento (The Last Breath).

• 9
  Outside visit

  Canal Central

  Aveiro's urban canals and their function today and in the past. Tides and locks. The types of boats in the Ria de Aveiro: physical characteristics, traditional decoration, usefulness and means of locomotion. Bridges and ribbons. What's left of the tide mill. The Art Nouveau surroundings.

• 10
  Outside visit

  Casa Major Pessoa

  Aveiro's main Art Nouveau building, it has two façades of great visual impact. A former bourgeois residence, it is now the Municipal Museu of Art Nouveau. Inseparable from other façades from the same period visible nearby on the north bank of the Central Canal.

• 11
  Outside visit

  Cais dos Botirões

  This will be followed by the story of the salt of Aveiro and how the sea was there and now it is far away. It will be the moment to reveal where the stones of Aveiro's walls, which surrounded part of the city between the 15th and 18th centuries, were taken from.