Braga rewards slow walking. The historic centre is dense with baroque churches and palaces, and everything of importance is within easy reach on foot. Start at the Sé — the oldest cathedral in Portugal — then step outside to the Garden of Santa Bárbara alongside the medieval walls of the Archbishop's Palace. The Arco da Porta Nova marks the western entrance to the pedestrian centre.
For Roman history, the Dom Diogo de Sousa Museum of Archaeology and the Fountain of the Idol are the best surviving reminders that Bracara Augusta was once one of the most important cities in Roman Iberia.
The unmissable excursion is Bom Jesus do Monte, a baroque stairway sanctuary perched on a wooded hillside a few kilometres east of the centre. The climb up the zigzagging staircase — or the ride on one of the oldest water-powered funiculars in the world — is as much the point as the church at the top.