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Coimbra is a city and a district of Portugal.
Coimbra city is located 120 km south of Porto and 190 km north of Lisbon in the A1, the main highway of Portugal. The city is the main administrative centre of Central Portugal. Coimbra is set by the Mondego River, about 40 km East of Figueira da Foz, a neighbour coastal city with several beaches, summer and seaport facilities in the Atlantic Ocean coast.
The city of Coimbra has a population of about 106,800 inhabitants in 12 parishes and the municipality has 148,474 inhabitants in 31 parishes. Coimbra has 450,000 inhabitants in its metropolitan area. It is the forth largest city of Portugal and the capital city of the central part of the country. With a dense urban grid the city of Coimbra is also famous for its monuments, churches, libraries and numerous parks and gardens.
The fame of the city, which was capital of Portugal during part of the XII and XIII Century, rests mostly on its University of Coimbra with about 25,000 students, but also in shopping, technology industry, administrative offices, financial services and specialized medical care (see Hospitais da Universidade de Coimbra). The university founded in 1290 is one of the oldest in Europe, attracting students from around the world which gives the city a special and rare atmosphere.
Coimbra is also known for the reduced child-scale buildings it has erected within one of its city parks. These buildings are scale copies of its own typical pieces of architecture.
It has a large archeological site with extensive ruins dating from the time it was a Roman town called Aeminium. The cathedral of Sé Velha, built in the 12th century in the Romanesque style, is still in operation, and it is worth to visit all the old buildings from the university dating XV, XVI, XVII and XVIII century, the New Cathedral from the XVII century, the Monastery of Santa Cruz from the XII century with the tombs of the two first portuguese kings and the Machado de Castro Museum.
There is a wide variety of accommodation available, ranging from the camping-park or one of the many inexpensive hostels to the charming downtown hotels.
Coimbra is also known for its students' parties. Two are held every year.
The first one, Latada, occurs in the beginning of scholar year, and is a welcome to the new University students (Caloiros).
The second one, Queima das Fitas, more important than the first, takes place at the start of the second semester (usually around May) and it's probably the biggest student party in all Europe. It lasts for 8 days, each for each University Faculty, Letras (Humanities), Direito (Law), Medicina (Medicine), Ciências (Science), Farmácia (Pharmacy), Economia (Economics), Psicologia (Psychology) and Desporto (Sports).
Coimbra is home to Académica, a football autonomous organism of the Associação Académica de Coimbra, who play in the Portuguese Football League at the Estádio Cidade de Coimbra, and also to Clube de Futebol União de Coimbra (a smaller sport club, but also important in the city).
Coimbra's Estádio Cidade de Coimbra (30,000 seats) was a site of the Euro 2004.
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