CONFERENCE LOCATION

The city of Aveiro

“one of the most beautiful cities in Portugal”

Aveiro is a beautiful and a dynamic town with 80 000 inhabitants located in the west coast of Portugal, just an hour away from Porto. It is on an estuary between the land and sea, and is a maze of canals where the coloured prows of the moliceiros (seaweed boats) glide along. It is also a town of commerce and services and a growing centre of leisure and culture offering cinema, theatre, music, arts, sport and night life. The extensive stretches of beach just a few kilometres away also make this town very attractive for nature lovers and water sport enthusiasts.

What to visit?

For your first encounter of the city and its estuary, take a trip in one of these slender boats, a masterpiece of design. Sail through the canals that run the length of this unique landscape, and see the light reflected in the white cones of crystallised salt on the shore.

The blue tiled panels that line the railway station explain the history and customs of this region. As does the city’s museum, housed in a former convent where the Infanta D. Joana sheltered, daughter of King Afonso V. Here you can take a “Journey through the baroque” that includes the Infanta Dona Joana’s tomb. Made of tiny pieces of multicoloured inlaid marble, it is one of the most beautiful examples in Portugal.

On the Central Canal you’ll see a row of buildings in the Arte Nova style. In one of these it’s recommended that you sample the delicious “ovos moles” a speciality egg-based dessert made in Aveiro. You’ll enjoy seeing the busy fish market too, plus the Senhor das Barrocas chapel in all its baroque grandeur, and the beautiful doorway of the Church of the Misericórdia. A trip on the lake in the romantic Infante Dom Pedro Park is another great city attraction.

And to see some contemporary Portuguese architecture, visit the surprising collection of buildings that make up the campus of the University of Aveiro.

Some interesting and important links

Map of Aveiro

Aveiro Tourist Guide [1.5 MB]

Portugal Tourist Guide

The University of Aveiro

The University of Aveiro, created 30 years ago, and with more than 11 000 students, is part of the dynamic and growing town of Aveiro. The students are distributed along the most different areas: engineering and technology, health sciences, management and economy and also arts, education and humanities.

Besides being a university campus, the campus of the University of Aveiro could also be called a reference site of Portuguese architecture. It includes over thirty buildings by more than twenty architects and it has created a new urban pole within the city of Aveiro, which is widely known and appreciated both at national and international level.

University Map [150 KB]