Coimbra daily photos

2007-12-26T14:52:00.000Z

2007-08-30T12:50:00.001+01:00

The new beggining...

This is a new time for this blog about Coimbra.
Some of my friends have found the blog and want to share there photos with you all.
I am really happy about that!

With all the crazy live that is mine, I deserted the blog...
For that my apologies...

Do you know anything about BEST? If NO is the answer: http://best.uc.pt/

This photo is from my friend Mark, from BEST!

Great photo Mark!!!! :)

Enjoy Coimbra from the air!!!

2007-07-21T16:09:00.000+01:00

Light and night...

The street opens up for us waiting for our undecided and curious steps.
We woke up for the details that the lights of the night turn visible, trying to discern what the night hides to our glance...

The city waits for us...

2007-05-14T00:40:00.000+01:00

Have you seen?

I am filing constant updates and accounts of news reports in the comments box here for readers' information; I know that some countries are not fully covering the story.

British Madeleine McCann, aged 3, was abducted from Praia da Luz in Portugal on 3rd May 2007. Her parents were dining at a restaurant, leaving her and her twin 2 -year old siblings alone in their apartment. Madeleine, of course, could be anywhere in the world now.

If you see her or know anything, please call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or 0044 1883 731 336 for outside UK.

I have decided to show Madeleine's picture here on Coimbra Daily Photo to help publicise this terrible event and circulate her photo so that everyone can look out for her. Her family and Sky News are asking people to circulate a poster/photo for this reason.

Let's all pray that this beautiful little girl will be returned safe and well.

2007-05-13T22:43:00.000+01:00

The return!

After all this time… a long road… lost steps… unexpected confusions...

The city deserves. Always calm at the edge of Rio Mondego, trying to spread a mantle of light for all how many in her lives.

On this last week the city was temporarily crazy with the student's madness... they take a time to think, to drink, to love just as me... in a thoughtless and passionate way.

Queima das Fitas… This is Coimbra!

Photo by Vitor Oliveira

2007-03-16T19:21:00.001Z

The Down Town

The Down Town of the city is a mixed of culture and trade... history and tradition...
The proximity of the river open a beautiful view and make us notice more than in any other point of the city, the true entrance of the city, the true the door for the which we all entered in the secrets of the city...

Photo by Dias dos Reis

TEC - Tuna de Enfermagem de Coimbra - Coimbra, a bela

2007-03-16T19:09:00.001Z

2007-03-01T00:47:00.001Z

Coimbra at night...

The city changes when the nigth arrive...
The students make the city live and breathe in a energetic, seductive and thoughtful way.
The search of amusement and pleasure is mixed with the search for rest and peace...

Foto by Acastellano

2007-02-18T22:10:00.001Z

Coimbra!...

This picture is not mine...
I ignore who is the author, but it is beautiful! A very beautiful picture!
I was impassioned by everything that the picture transmits, for everything that the picture reveals...
I was surprised with what I felt when for the first time I saw her.

I hope she leaves you without words!

2007-02-12T13:11:00.001Z

The Tower of the University

Forgive my silence!
They exist moments in that the silence saves... And I am to speak of me...
Well...

This building is the most famous of Coimbra, the Tower of the University and the Latin Road, "Via Latina"!
Old real palace, became the central building of the University for royal donation...
At this time the building is part of Faculty of Laws and from Rectory of the University.

I leave you to the sound of one of the maximum exponents of the "Música Coimbrã"...
Carlos Paredes!

2007-01-31T22:39:00.000Z

The green heart...

This is one of the largest treasures that Coimbra has to offer...
You could forget the city per moments and rest your ideas observing the river, breathing the aroma of the trees and listening the sounds that surround you.
A dive in a paradisiacal place invades your mind, only to open your eyes and notice that the dream is not so far like that...

It is in front of you...
It is in your mind...
It is in your heart.

2007-01-22T13:41:00.000Z

The reform...

The city is alive... She lives through the people and the buildings that give her form. Each building is a piece of history that rises and transmits to the today generations the work and perspiration of older generations...
We are in 1772, and the power in Lisbon orders a total reform in the academical teaching in Coimbra... we entered in the Age of Enlightenment and the influence of the religious institutions disappears.
New buildings appear... This is one of them...

This one reflects well the ideas of his time...

2007-01-12T18:27:00.000Z

A glance inside...

As I promised in my last visit, I present you pictures from the interior of the building...

The stairways...

On the way to the amphitheaters for the classes...

Lights and shadows...

Escape...

2007-01-04T21:11:00.000Z

Cars, cars and more cars!

It becomes complicated... Why so many cars?
Per times I close the eyes and I imagine the city without cars... It is a so beautiful vision! As it would be magic to turn it reality!

The severity of the lines and the duplicity of the colours turn this building unique...
The external aspect is revealed in all his extension in the interiors, it is a building drawn to dominate who enters in him: hiding entrances, offering obstacles, controlling the senses and the steps.
I don't want, however to be unfair...

Come and see... Next time!

Happy 2007!

2006-12-20T19:19:00.000Z

What the eyes don't see... The heart doesn't feel...

I always listen that after a last encounter the people stand back and they forget one of the other until they meet again. That the problem is in the lack of time or in the compulsive consumption of new friendships that supposedly make us feel more complete.

In my opinion, want to do everything at the whole cost - in a scarce time that we needed to try the life and not to let her to pass on ours side at all the speed - it is arrested with the dependence of the things. It is treated literally of dependence.

The people pass in the street quickly wanting to arrive at house ... They even not have time to look to a blue beauty!

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-15T10:34:00.000Z

The ancien happyness...

Try not to think: when you feel the sun heating up your face; when you feel the wind slide for your body; when you savor an appetizing plate; when you hear a bird (out of the cage); when you listen a person speaking with you... now that you are seeing Coimbra... ;-)

When you live the present!

Try to postpone the thought about what you don't have, don't depend of what you want to have...

And feel that you can be more happy today... Because even in the ruins exists beauty.;-)

2006-12-03T17:13:00.000Z

Wake up!...

The sunshine calls you, but you insist on staying in the twilight.

Wake up and cheers with the beginning of one more day in a city that seeks you to each instant. Move away from the prison of your vision and live without fears of the shadows that torment your dreams...

The city wants you! Come!

2006-11-26T21:16:00.000Z

The Garden of the Mermaid…

Entering in the Garden of the Mermaid we can stop an instant and take a picture to one of the sources that offer water to us. Speeding up the step we observe forms and colours that surprise us...

Each rock hides a history... Each drop a secret...

A place that put an end to the thirst of students and passionate people.

2006-11-19T21:00:00.000Z

The people cross...

The people cross at the squares, in the bridges and in the streets of this city of mysteries and mazes. They go and they return, in a perpetual movement. An endless dance that nobody will ever get to stop.

They walk per times without a destination and, for that, they get lost and they find themselves in the corners where are forced to return. In the gardens they stay a bit more. They are seating to hear the sounds that disperse in the air…

2006-11-12T21:19:00.000Z

The eternal movement...

The people cross at the squares, in the bridge and in the streets of this city of mysteries and mazes. They go and they return, in a perpetual movement.
An endless dance that nobody will get to stop...

2006-11-07T21:49:00.000Z

Portugal...

A building can transmit a lot about the identity of a people.
This picture intends to portray the Portuguese people and Portugal.

I admit that I find absurd somebody think that she can describe the creative process of an architecture project with base in subjects from imagination.
Each person observes the building in a different way and that glance to the building does with that we wake up an interpretation completely different in each one of us...

In a way or of other, this is the building that accommodates an exhibition of contemporary art of Fundação Serralves.

2006-10-27T01:18:00.000+01:00

Isabel de Aragão (1271–1336)

She was queen consort of Portugal and is a Saint of the Roman Catholic Church. She is also known as Queen Saint Elisabeth (in Portuguese Rainha Santa Isabel).

She was named after her great-aunt Elisabeth of Hungary, but is known in Portuguese by "Isabel". The daughter of Peter III of Aragon, and Queen Constance of Sicily, a granddaughter of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, she showed an early enthusiasm for religion: she said the full Divine Office daily, fasted and did other penances, and attended twice daily choral masses.

Elizabeth was married very early to Denis of Portugal, a poet, and known as Rei Lavrador, or the farmer king, because he planted a large pine forest, near Leiria. The wood from these trees would later be used to make the boats during the discoveries. Elizabeth quietly pursued the regular religious practices of her maidenhood, and was devoted to the poor and sick. Naturally, such a life was a reproach to many around her, and caused ill will in some quarters. A popular story is told of how her husband's jealousy was roused by an evil-speaking page; of how he condemned the queen's supposed guilty accomplice to a cruel death; and was finally convinced of her innocence by the strange accidental substitution of her accuser for the intended victim.

They had two children, a daughter Constance, who married Ferdinand IV of Castile, and a son Afonso (later Afonso IV of Portugal). The latter so greatly resented the favours shown to the king's illegitimate sons that he rebelled, and in 1323 war was declared between him and his father. Elisabeth, however, reconciled her husband and son, and is known in consequence as the "peacemaker".

Denis died in 1325, his son succeeding him. Elisabeth then retired to a convent of the Poor Clares which she had founded at Coimbra, where she took the habit of the Franciscan Order, wishing to devote the rest of her life to the poor and sick in obscurity. But she was called forth to act once more as peacemaker. In 1336 Afonso IV marched his troops against the Alfonso XI of Castile, to whom he had married his daughter Maria, and who had neglected and ill-treated her. In spite of age and weakness, the queen dowager insisted on hurrying to Estremoz, where the two kings' armies were drawn up. She again stopped the fighting and caused terms of peace to be arranged. But the exertion brought on her final illness; and as soon as her mission was fulfilled she died of a fever on July 8, 1336.

Elizabeth was buried at Coimbra, and miracles were said to have followed her death. She was canonized by Pope Urban VIII in 1625, and her feast is kept on July 8 on the traditional Catholic calendar and on the 4th of July on the new calendar.

2006-10-16T00:36:00.000+01:00

A glance for the city...

This is the main view of the old city...
The river extends as a mantle along the city trying to tranquilize with his calm the people that inhabit in Coimbra.

The students seek the knowledge and amusement that the city have to offer.
And the city is generous...

2006-10-08T13:56:00.000+01:00

The artistic revolution...

Coimbra is a city entirely dedicated to the students, is art and knowledge.

The city has pride of that!
In the buildings of the University it is possible to see some works that reflect that dedication...

This one can be found in the Physics Department.

2006-09-26T12:32:00.000+01:00

Last days of summer...

The sun shines, but his intensity is no longer the same.
We fell the soft touch of the Autumn on the whole side...
But the desire to celebrate the last days of summer is stronger...

I encounter always plants that make us travel in thought for places where the summer never ends...

2006-09-19T13:16:00.000+01:00

Gardens of Mondego...

The contrasts between the light and the shadows, the magnificent shines that invite you to rest and reflect. The sounds and smells of the garden in the air...
It´s good walk in the edge river!

2006-09-11T21:36:00.000+01:00

The religion...

Coimbra is a city of faith...
The University began as a religious school.
The whole old kingdom of Portugal rotated in wheel of the desire of salvation of the souls...

The faith consumed the work and wealth of a people, that instead of taking care of the alive ones, it just worried with the salvation of the death...

The priests were the true temporary gentlemen of whatever existed...
They had the power to elevate or destroy kings, the power to save or condemn, the power of live or die.
That power vineyard of places as portrayed. It was from these places that the sermons were made for "honor and glory of God", and of their representatives in the earth.

Don't condemn me for that I wrote today. I ask for excuse to all the ones that be somehow hurt...

2006-09-06T18:30:00.000+01:00

The school…

The love images appear by everyhere...

We only have to be alert, and smile!

This work is part of the structure of a school.

It's good that all we learn how to love...

2006-09-04T20:52:00.000+01:00

The new bridge...

All sought new roads that take us to the other margin...

All sought a road shorter, more comfortable, safer.

The bridges are the maximum exponent of that desire.

This new bridge makes the connection for people and bicycles among the two margins of the river Mondego and it will be the bridge among the two "gardens of Mondego", the new parks of the city...

2006-08-28T12:10:00.000+01:00

Forgive me...

I was out of the world for six delicious weeks...

As I'm happy!

I returned of the dreams for the city where I live, and in spite of feeling that I know the city she surprises me to each new look...

I love that.

This is a typical image of the alleys of the old city.

It is worthwhile alone for the confusion that leads us to the past of the city. A hug the all the ones that left messages! Thank you!

2006-07-17T22:15:00.000+01:00

The fingerprint...

This work in matter left me to think...
The author truly wanted to leave his mark in the wall!
Of what are we capable to leave our mark in the walls of the world?

2006-07-14T12:26:00.000+01:00

The old aqueduct...

The water is the most precious product than any city disposes...

This aqueduct is the proof of the effort and work of a people that didn't want to be deprived of such important essence.

Each rock of this construction proves the thirst that consumed the people of the city...

Now the aqueduct lost his purpose, but it neither lost his meaning nor his beauty...

2006-07-13T17:23:00.000+01:00

Faculty of Letters

This is a building that proves the smashing power of the dictatorial regime in that Portugal lived during almost 50 years...

Even so he doesn't stop being a beautiful building.

I especially like the reliefs and statues that are disposed by the square...

But it is easy to notice that until them demonstrate the inflexibility sensation, hardness and blindness what the Portuguese people were subject for so many years...

2006-07-12T17:49:00.000+01:00

Masks!

All of us used masks...

Although in an innocent way!

The city is the perfect character for this comedy that is uncoiled from always... Which of these faces is the Real? Which the Mask?

Whenever the city is looked at in the mirror is this the reflex that answers her.

The city has several faces, depending on the glance of who observes her.

2006-07-10T19:43:00.000+01:00

Walls

The walls of Coimbra have some fantastic works...
Next days I will try to present some of them.

2006-07-02T19:40:00.000+01:00

The old bakery...

This is a bakery truly beautiful... Old and full of tradition, but in the good Portuguese way, it was transformed in a coffee!

It is said that the Portuguese sweets with saint's and angels names, and not only, (they are denominated "Doces Conventuais"), because they have "been born" at the Convents. The Convents or Monasteries, most of them founded by kings and princes, they were for them endowed with forums and favors that guaranteed them wealthy and full subsistence, up to 1834, date of the extinction of the Religious orders in Portugal.

The convents welcomed in their Rules the daughters of the nobility and of the richest families than, besides their gifts of important incomes, they brought with itself feeding habits and family incomes that created refined preparations of food and the rich sweets, and per times complicated ones.
Kept the secrets of the compositions jealously and of the preparation methods, the incomes were property of the convent that the nuns committed to hide a lifetime.
Of course always some happened "escapes of information", especially of the easiest preparations and very probably the least costly ones. They went like this entering in the Portuguese traditions the classic of the seasonal sweets: the rice pudding, the sponge cake, the sweet and so many other vermicelli.
It won fame in Europe the Portuguese sweets, fed up with sugar and eggs. The refinements of the rich sweets would be selected for the great personalities and occasions of dove; and, for the individuals of smaller social structure, they would be suitable the little cakes and cookies that the congregations classified of poor sweets. All these seductive goodies for who it was not accustomed to them, were true marvels that left the gifted hands of the nuns.
During about seven hundred years, this knowledge went accumulating and developing with new ingredients, and long practice of the nuns that dedicated them endless working hours, patience and devotion, challenging envies and masking her inevitable self-respect well for the work gotten. Confronted with the imperious need of they win her bread of everyday, some nuns began to remove party of their manual "gifts" (seams and embroideries) but, very especially, of the incomes of the refined sweets for the which their convents were had became such famous.
It is like this, and thanks to the investigation of many studious that "translated" the notes by hand of many files of the monasteries, they were leaving to public and the domain of many lay hands the marvels of the conventual candies.

2006-06-28T22:06:00.000+01:00

Mondego...

I love water!
Although born in the mountains and sculpted starting from rock, it's water that makes me smile.
This is the river Mondego only 5 minutes of the city...
The picture can be deceiving.
And the city here so close.

2006-06-27T17:44:00.000+01:00

Here so close...

It's impressive as the nature knows how call to her whatever the man abandons. This picture is not from the city, but it is a reflex of what is going in her heart. So far... And so close...

2006-06-20T14:59:00.000+01:00

Lost in the roofs of the city...

2006-06-16T20:32:00.000+01:00

DEI - The Department of Information Systems and Computer Engineering

The Department of Information Systems and Computer Engineering (DEI – Departamento de Engenharia Informática ) was created in 1994 with the goal to improve all aspects related to these disciplines at UC: under-graduate degrees ( Licenciatura ), post-graduate (Master’s and Ph.D. level) development, research and relationship to the society. This process started back in 1980 with a clear policy directed towards developing competent and motivated young professors, through effective research and development hosted in excellence centers of international grade, such as INESC (Institute for Computer and Systems Engineering). This effort led to the first undergraduate degree in Software and Computer Engineering, LEI ( Licenciatura em Engenharia Informática ).

2006-06-13T18:03:00.000+01:00

The Botanical Garden

The Botanical Garden of the University of Coimbra was founded in 1772 and it was integrated in the Natural History Museum established by the Marquis of Pombal. Domingos Vandelli was the first supervisor for the orientation of the Garden, being followed in 1791 by Félix Avelar Brotero, a great professor of Botany and Agriculture.

The area of the Garden, which has been enlarged, reaches the 13 hectares it occupies at present.

The Botanical Garden shelters several species of birds in their natural environment. The brown squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) has been part of the ecosystem since it was successfully introduced in June 1994. In fact, the six couples of squirrels which were the initial population seem to have adatpted and have bred well, being now integral part of the environment.

The Botanical Garden of the University of Coimbra, is considered one of the most beautiful of Europe…

2006-06-11T11:27:00.000+01:00

Central Services of the Faculty of Sciences & Technology

The University of Coimbra is divided in eight different faculties (Letters, Law, Medicine, Sciences & Technology, Pharmacy, Economics, Psychology & Education Sciences and Sports Sciences & Physical Education), comprising about 23000 students. Its hospital school, HUC (Hospitais da Universidade de Coimbra), is a leading European hospital, known as a centre of research and high-quality medical services. The university also harbours a huge central library (University of Coimbra General Library), botanical gardens (Botanical Garden of the University of Coimbra), a stadium and sports complex, an astronomical observatory, a publishing house, a private church and many support facilities such as dining halls and studying rooms.

2006-06-10T22:11:00.000+01:00

A beautiful sun... A perfect esplanade... Nobody in her...

The sun rises in the whiteness of the day.

There are 8 university canteens, where the meals are offered at a much lower price than in restaurants.

This is one of the smallest and homelike, is located in the Campus II of the University of Coimbra, next to the North margin of Rio Mondego.

Happy the people without owner that know how to enjoy the freedom...

2006-06-09T22:58:00.000+01:00

The Joanina Library

Coimbra is called as "A cidade dos estudantes" (The city of the students), mainly because it is the site of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Portugal - the University of Coimbra. It is also the place where the oldest and biggest students' union of university students in Portugal was founded - the Associação Académica de Coimbra.

The Joanina Library, built in the 18th century during the reign of John V (and named after him), exhibits the national coat of arms over the entrance door. Inside, there are three great rooms divided by decorated arches, bearing the same style of the portal and entirely executed by Portuguese artists.

The walls are covered by two storied shelves, in gilded or painted exotic woods; the painted ceilings, by the Lisbon artists Simões Ribeiro and Vicente Nunes, blend harmoniously with the rest of the decoration.

The libray contains about 250 thousand volumes, namely works of medicine, geography, history, humanistic studies, science, civil and canonical law, philosophy and theology.