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Portugal lies on the western side of the Iberian Peninsula, facing the Atlantic Ocean, with Spain as its only land neighbour. Far out in the ocean it also includes two groups of islands, Madeira and the Azores. The north is green and hilly, while the south, the Alentejo and the Algarve, is a land of rolling plains, cork oaks and golden beaches.
Portugal became a kingdom in the 1100s, and its borders on the mainland have barely changed since 1297. In the 1400s and 1500s its sailors led the Age of Discovery: they sailed around Africa to India, reached Brazil and built trading posts as far away as China and Japan.
Today Portugal is a democratic republic of about 11.4 million people. The monarchy ended in 1910, a long dictatorship ended with the peaceful Carnation Revolution of 1974, and the country joined the European Community in 1986. Portuguese, the language its explorers carried around the world, now has more than 250 million native speakers, most of them in Brazil.
From Lusitanian warriors who fought Rome to the explorers who opened the sea route to India, Portugal's small corner of Europe has had a very large part in world history.
Viriathus, leader of the Lusitanian people, won several victories against the Romans before he was betrayed and murdered in his sleep in 139 BC. The Portuguese remember him as a national hero. Rome went on to conquer the region, which became the province of Lusitania.
The nobleman Vímara Peres took the land between the Minho and Douro rivers from the Moors and became the first Count of Portugal. The name comes from Portus Cale, the Roman name for the port at the mouth of the Douro, today's Porto.
Afonso Henriques, who had called himself king in 1139, took Lisbon after a siege of about four months, with the help of crusaders from northern Europe on their way to the Holy Land. Lisbon became the capital about a century later, in 1255.
In the papal bull Manifestis Probatum, Pope Alexander III recognised Afonso Henriques as king of an independent Portugal. It is often called the founding document of the country.
After English archers helped Portugal beat Castile at the Battle of Aljubarrota in 1385, King John I and England signed a pact of lasting friendship, sealed by his marriage to the English princess Philippa of Lancaster. The alliance is still in force today.
King John I and his sons, among them the young Prince Henry, later called Henry the Navigator, took the North African port of Ceuta. It is seen as the start of the Portuguese overseas empire.
After sailing around the southern tip of Africa, Vasco da Gama landed near Calicut (Kozhikode) in India on 20 May 1498. He had opened the first sea route from Europe to Asia, and the spice trade made Lisbon rich.
A fleet led by Pedro Álvares Cabral, on its way to India, sailed far out into the Atlantic and on 22 April 1500 reached the coast of Brazil, which Cabral claimed for Portugal.
King Sebastian died in battle in Morocco in 1578 and his successor left no heir. Philip II of Spain claimed the throne, and for sixty years, from 1580 to 1640, Spain's kings were also kings of Portugal.
On 1 December 1640 the Duke of Braganza was proclaimed King John IV of Portugal. After years of war, Spain accepted Portugal's independence in 1668. The date, 1 December, is a national holiday.
On the morning of 1 November 1755, All Saints' Day, a huge earthquake, followed by a tsunami and fires, almost completely destroyed Lisbon. Tens of thousands died. The city centre, the Baixa, was rebuilt with a new grid of straight streets.
Days before Napoleon's army reached Lisbon, the royal family and about 10,000 courtiers sailed for Brazil. From 1808 to 1821 Rio de Janeiro was the capital of the Portuguese empire.
On 5 October 1910 a revolution ended centuries of monarchy, and the republic was proclaimed from the balcony of Lisbon's city hall. The last king, Manuel II, went into exile in England.
On 25 April 1974 army officers overthrew the Estado Novo, the dictatorship built by António de Oliveira Salazar, with very little bloodshed. People put red carnations into the soldiers' guns, which gave the revolution its name. Democracy followed, and Portugal's African colonies soon became independent.
Portugal joined the European Economic Community, today's European Union, on 1 January 1986, on the same day as Spain.
At midnight on 20 December 1999 Portugal handed Macau, its last territory in Asia, to China, ending 442 years of Portuguese rule there.
Portuguese cooking is simple and generous: good olive oil, garlic, fresh fish and seafood, pork, bread and a great love of sweets. Lunch and dinner usually begin with a soup, such as caldo verde, followed by a main course of fish or meat, then dessert, and end with a small, strong coffee.
Shredded salt cod, onions and very thin fried potato sticks, bound together with softly scrambled egg and finished with black olives and parsley.
Bacalhau (dried salted cod) is so loved that the Portuguese say there are 365 ways to cook it, one for every day of the year, and some say 1,001.
'Green broth': a potato soup filled with very finely shredded Portuguese cabbage or kale, served with a slice of chouriço sausage and a drizzle of olive oil.
In 2011 caldo verde was voted one of the Seven Wonders of Portuguese Gastronomy.
A small tart of crisp, flaky pastry filled with egg custard, baked in a very hot oven until the top is blistered and dark in spots. Often dusted with cinnamon and eaten with a coffee.
Monks of the Jerónimos Monastery made the original tarts. After the monastery closed in 1834 the recipe was sold, and the bakery Pastéis de Belém, open since 1837, still keeps it secret.
Whole fresh sardines sprinkled with coarse salt and grilled over charcoal, eaten with boiled potatoes, a salad of peppers, or simply on a slice of bread.
Grilled sardines are the smell of June in Lisbon, when the city celebrates Saint Anthony on the nights of 12 and 13 June with street parties in the old quarters.
A creamy rice pudding flavoured with lemon peel and enriched with egg yolks, served cold with patterns of ground cinnamon drawn on top.
A towering sandwich of bread, steak, ham and sausage, covered in melted cheese and a hot tomato and beer sauce, usually with chips on the side.
The name means 'little French girl'. It is said to have been created in 1953 by Daniel David de Silva, who came home from France and adapted the croque monsieur to Portuguese tastes.
A hearty stew of tripe with white beans, sausage and carrots, served with rice.
Legend says that in 1415 Porto gave all its good meat to the fleet sailing to conquer Ceuta and kept only the tripe. People from Porto are still nicknamed 'tripeiros', tripe eaters.
Thin slices of pork simmered with garlic and white wine, served hot in a soft bread roll, often with mustard. A cheap, quick lunch at a café counter.
Clams, prawns, fish or pork cooked with onion, peppers, tomato, garlic and white wine in a cataplana, a hinged copper pan shaped like two clam shells that closes tightly and steams the food.
The dish takes its name from the pan. The best known version is clams in cataplana.
A big boiled dinner of several meats and smoked sausages with cabbage, potatoes, carrots and turnips, a winter favourite and one of the national dishes.
On São Miguel island in the Azores, a local version is cooked in pots buried in the hot volcanic ground.
Tender roasted octopus with small 'punched' potatoes, garlic and a very generous pouring of olive oil. It is often eaten on Christmas Eve.
A 'lagareiro' is a worker in an olive oil mill, a nod to all the olive oil in the dish.
A soft smoked sausage of bread and garlic mixed with meat, traditionally poultry or game. Most alheiras today, including the protected Alheira de Mirandela, also contain pork. It is usually fried and served with chips and a fried egg.
According to a well-known story, it was invented by Jews forced to convert in the 1490s, who hung pork-free sausages in their smokehouses so that they would not be noticed.
A soft, creamy cheese made from raw sheep's milk curdled with thistle flowers instead of rennet. When young it is soft enough to be almost runny.
It is made mostly from November to March and has a protected designation of origin.
A sweet fortified wine, usually red, made from grapes grown on the steep terraces of the Douro Valley and often served with dessert.
Port is named after the city of Porto, where it was shipped from. It is aged in the wine lodges of Vila Nova de Gaia, across the river from Porto.
A light, fresh and often slightly sparkling wine, usually white, drunk young and chilled.
'Verde' means green, but here it means young: the wine is released a few months after the harvest. It can be white, red or rosé.
A sweet sour-cherry liqueur served in a small shot glass, often with a cherry at the bottom.
In Óbidos it is often served in a little cup made of chocolate that you eat afterwards.
Most Portuguese live near the coast, in and around Lisbon and Porto. Inland and in the south are smaller historic towns, each with its own castle, cathedral and pastries.
The capital since 1255, built on steep hills above the wide mouth of the Tagus. It is the westernmost capital of mainland Europe, famous for its old yellow trams, tiled façades and fado music.
Portugal's second city, climbing the steep bank of the Douro River near the sea. Its historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it gave its name to both port wine and Portugal.
One of the oldest cities in Portugal, founded by the Romans as Bracara Augusta. Its archbishops were so important that it is called the 'Rome of Portugal'.
Known as the 'birthplace of Portugal': the Battle of São Mamede, fought near here in 1128, set Afonso Henriques on the road to becoming the first king. The words 'Aqui nasceu Portugal' (Portugal was born here) are written on a tower of its old walls.
A town of canals on a coastal lagoon, often called the 'Venice of Portugal'. Colourful moliceiro boats, once used to gather seaweed, now carry visitors along the canals.
Portugal's capital from 1131 to 1255, on a hill above the Mondego River. It is home to the oldest university in Portugal, and its students still wear long black capes.
A small town on the Nabão River, founded in 1160 by Gualdim Pais, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, whose castle-convent still looks down on it.
A romantic hill town less than 30 km west of Lisbon, where kings and nobles built palaces and gardens in the cool, misty forest. Lord Byron called it a 'glorious Eden'.
The historic capital of the Alentejo, an inland walled city of whitewashed houses, about 140 km from Lisbon. It is one of Portugal's hottest cities in summer and a European Capital of Culture for 2027.
The capital of the Algarve and the southernmost city of mainland Portugal. Most visitors to the south arrive at its airport.
A lively seaside town in the western Algarve. In the 1400s it was a base for the voyages along the coast of Africa organised by Prince Henry the Navigator.
A small fortress of white stone built around 1514 to 1519 on the Tagus, where explorers set out and returned. Among its carvings is a rhinoceros, thought to be the first sculpture of the animal in Western European art. It is part of a World Heritage Site with the Jerónimos Monastery.
UNESCO World HeritageA huge monastery begun in 1501 by King Manuel I at the height of the spice trade. It is the masterpiece of the Manueline style, carved with ropes and sea motifs, and holds the tombs of Vasco da Gama and the poet Luís de Camões.
UNESCO World Heritage
A fairy-tale palace of red and yellow towers on a hilltop above Sintra, built from 1842 to 1854 for King Ferdinand II on the site of an old monastery. It mixes Gothic, Manueline and Islamic styles and is part of the Cultural Landscape of Sintra.
UNESCO World Heritage
A windswept cape with cliffs more than 100 metres high and a lighthouse, about 42 km west of Lisbon. It is the westernmost point of mainland Europe.
Founded in 1290 and settled in Coimbra for good in 1537, it is the oldest university in Portugal. Its old royal palace and the richly gilded Joanina Library, founded in 1717, sit at the top of the hill.
UNESCO World Heritage
A hilltop sanctuary just outside Braga, reached by a great zigzag Baroque stairway of 583 steps, climbed by pilgrims. A funicular railway worked by water, opened in 1882, also carries visitors up.
UNESCO World Heritage
An iron arch bridge with two decks over the Douro, opened in 1886 and designed by Théophile Seyrig, a former partner of Gustave Eiffel. Metro trains and walkers cross the top deck, and buses, bicycles and walkers use the lower one.
UNESCO World Heritage
The granite columns of a temple built in the 1st century AD, probably in honour of the emperor Augustus. It is often called the Temple of Diana, but that name comes from a later legend. It survived partly because it was used as a butcher's shop from the 1300s until 1836.
UNESCO World Heritage
A castle founded by the Knights Templar around 1160, later the headquarters of the Order of Christ, which helped pay for the voyages of discovery. It has a round Templar church and a famous window carved with ropes, coral and seaweed.
UNESCO World Heritage
A headland of golden cliffs, sea stacks, arches and grottoes just south of Lagos, with a lighthouse built in 1913. Small boats take visitors into the caves.
Portugal and England (today the United Kingdom) have the oldest alliance in the world that is still in force, sealed by the Treaty of Windsor in 1386.
Portugal produces about half of the world's cork. The bark of the cork oak is stripped by hand about every nine years, and the tree is never cut down for it.
Guinness World Records lists Livraria Bertrand in Lisbon, founded in 1732, as the oldest operating bookshop in the world.
Giant waves at Nazaré, pushed up by a deep underwater canyon, draw surfers from all over the world. As of 2026, the Guinness world record for the biggest wave surfed is a wave of about 26 metres ridden there in 2020 by the German surfer Sebastian Steudtner.
Japanese tempura is thought to come from 'peixinhos da horta', green beans fried in batter, brought to Japan by Portuguese missionaries in the 1500s.
Catherine of Braganza, a Portuguese princess who married King Charles II in 1662, is credited with making tea drinking fashionable in England. Her dowry included Bombay (today Mumbai).
Portuguese is the fifth most spoken native language in the world. Far more people speak it in Brazil than in Portugal.
Portuguese children usually carry their mother's surname before their father's, the opposite order to Spain.
Fado, the soulful song of Lisbon, was added to UNESCO's list of intangible heritage in 2011. The word comes from the Latin 'fatum', fate.
Lisbon's 25 de Abril Bridge is painted the same 'International Orange' as the Golden Gate Bridge. It opened in 1966 as the Salazar Bridge and was renamed after the revolution of 1974.
The colourful Rooster of Barcelos, a favourite souvenir, comes from a legend about a roasted rooster that stood up and crowed to prove a pilgrim innocent.
Portugal's national day, 10 June, marks the death in 1580 of Luís de Camões, the poet of the great sea epic 'The Lusiads'.
Pronunciation is written the way it sounds; the capital letters show where the stress goes. Audio is coming soon.
Bread, butter, olives or cheese are often brought to the table before you order. They are not free, but you pay only if you eat them. If you do not want them, ask the waiter to take them away.
Restaurants must offer free tap water, in clean reusable glasses, to customers who are eating or drinking there.
Service is included in restaurant bills, but it is customary to leave about 5 to 10 percent for good service. In taxis, people tip about 5 to 10 percent or round up to the nearest euro.
Lisbon and Porto are very hilly, and the beautiful pavements of small polished stones, the 'calçada', can be slippery, especially when wet.
Restaurants usually serve lunch from noon to about 2:30 or 3 pm and dinner from about 7:30 to 10:30 pm. Shops traditionally open from 9 or 10 am to 7 pm on weekdays, and shopping centres stay open until late every day.
Portuguese is a different language from Spanish, and people appreciate it when visitors try a few words of Portuguese. Many Portuguese speak good English.
'Um café' gets you a small, strong espresso, drunk standing at the counter. In Lisbon it is often called a 'bica'.
The emergency number is 112. Pharmacies are marked with a green cross and usually open on weekdays from 9 am to 7 pm, and on Saturday mornings.
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