Scenic gardens

Monasteries, palaces and country houses

World Heritage Sites

Culture and hospitality

Rich gastronomy

Garden TourGuided

Groups 8-20Charming Hotels

Highlights

You are invited to discover the charming heterogeneity

of the gardens of Porto and surrounding region, the

birthplace of Portugal. Highlights include the picturesque

gardens of a top Verde wine maker’s Quinta, a selection of

outstanding manor house gardens, an ancient Benedictine monastery

Cerca, truly old camellia collections, Romantic gardens of wealthy Port

merchants and a unique modernist garden.

To make this a very special tour, we invited site owners and directors as

well as connoisseurs to guide us through their treasures and make you

feel as if you were in your own garden.

Northern PortugalEnchanted Gardens

info@portugalgreenwalks.com

www.portugalgreenwalks.com

Holiday Type

MADRID

VIGO

PORTO

LISBOA

© Fundação da Casa de Mateus

DAY 5The whole day is spent in Porto and surroundings, starting with a visit to Palácio de Cristal, built for the 1865 International Exhibition. The original building, by the architect of London’s Crystal Palace, was replaced by a modern dome shaped sports pavilion. The gardens are quite eclectic, combining remnants of the original Romantic design by Émile David with later additions. A splendid panorama over the river Douro and its bridges can be enjoyed here. We then head to the park of Serralves, a rarity in Portugal and indeed any country: a complete modernist garden by Jacques Gréber for a truly remarkable Art-Déco house designed in the 1930s. Three different garden design styles can be appreciated here, as Gréber’s design integrated and adapted several elements (pond, camellia garden, …) of the original 19th century Romantic garden and was in turn later combined with the modern landscaping (by João Gomes and Erika Skabar) of Álvaro Siza’s Museum of Contemporary Art, which opened in 2000.After some free time for lunch, we head to Leça do Balio to visit the garden of Alão, a stunning gem from the 17th century bravely protected and meticulously maintained by Francisco Vasconcelos.We return to the hotel with time for relaxing before the farewell dinner offered at Taylor’s, one of the most prestigious Port wine cellars. Taylor's is now over 300 years old and it remains a family firm. Its Barão de Fladgate restaurant offers a particularly privileged view to Porto’s World Heritage riverfront. Before dinner, there will be a guided tour of the cellars.

DAY 6We spend the morning at Villar d´Allen, once the summer residence of João Allen, the great-great-grandfather of the current owners. His son Alfredo Allen designed and planted the Quinta’s gardens together with Émile David. With their original design still largely intact, these are easily the most important private Romantic gardens in the city, a masterpiece of the 19th century. Beautiful paths intersect, with ponds, waterfalls, benches on picturesque corners, a pergola, a woodland garden and an old formal garden in front of the house. D. Isaura Allen will be happy to show us her magnificent collection of Portuguese camellias, rhododendrons, magnolias as well as many rare trees and shrubs which can be found here, in a rich combination of exotic colours and scents. The afternoon will be free for relaxing or visiting Porto’s city centre.

DAY 7After checking out from the hotel, we drive to the Quinta of Santo Inácio, in Vila Nova de Gaia, for a relaxing final morning. This site dates back to the 18th century. It contains a particularly old collection of camellias, azaleas and rhododendrons. Some rare trees can be found, including some monumental eucalyptus. A new garden, designed by Patrick Bowe, was added in the east area. Lunch will be offered at the Quinta’s restaurant before leaving for the airport.

DAY 1From Porto Airport, we drive northeast to Guimarães for a warm welcome at the sumptuous Pousada of Sta Marinha da Costa. This former Augustine and Hyeronimite monastery, founded in 1139, is set on a tranquil wooded hilltop still retaining many key features of the ancient Cerca gardens. It will be our base for the first 3 nights. The day closes with a short guided tour of the city’s historic centre (World Heritage Site) and a relaxing evening meal.

DAY 2We depart to Vila Real for a visit to the gardens of Solar de Mateus. Here, the visitor is surprised by a mirror pool designed in the 1960’s by Ribeiro Telles reflecting the Baroque silhouette of the manor house, dating 1743. After enjoying the box-lined terraced gardens at the back of the house, with 20th century alterations by the 2nd countess of Mangualde, and the massive tunnel of clipped cypress, it is time to head to Quinta da Aveleda in Penafiel.A tasting of Aveleda’s own deliciously refreshing Verde wine will be waiting for us at a terrace overlooking the vineyards. After lunch, we visit the Quinta with its pools, fountains, follies, luxuriant woodland and picturesque garden created in the 19th century by Manoel Pedro Guedes and kept in the family ever since. Impeccably maintained, the site is renowned for its collection of rare trees and dazzling azaleas, rhododendrons, camellias and other flowering shrubs.After a free evening in Guimarães, we drive back to the Pousada.

DAY 3We spend the day at Braga (20 km from Guimarães), the morning being devoted to the Benedictine Monastery of S. Martinho de Tibães. Once the mother-house of this religious order in Portugal and Brazil, and one of the grandest religious buildings in the country, it has endured centuries of neglect. However, the structure and some key features of its Cerca gardens are still visible and the ongoing restoration works won the Carlo Scarpa international garden award in 1998. Wooded areas, terraced orchards, the lovely octagonal entrance garden, box hedges, the dramatic water-stairway leading up to the S. Bento chapel, statuary, fountains, lakes, granite obelisks, make for a truly precious site. After free time for lunch at the old city centre (remarkable for the profusion of baroque churches and manor houses) we visit the Solar dos Biscainhos. Now housing an Ethnography and Arts museum, Biscainhos is one of the finest examples of eighteenth century civilian architecture. Its garden is among the few surviving examples of this period. Its terraced layout and old box compartments filled with flowers, a clipped camellia ‘cool-house’, stone and ironwork, water features and a majestic Liriodendrum tulipifera over 200 years old are some of the highlights of this enclosed, intimate Baroque garden.We drive back to Guimarães for dinner and the last night at the Pousada.

DAY 4After checking out from the Pousada, we drive to Portugal’s ‘camellia-land’: Celorico de Basto, a rural town near Guimarães. The main distinctive feature of Celorico’s gardens is their use of camellia shrubs for topiary. The plants, some of which are among the oldest in Europe, reach unusual dimensions and are clipped to extravagant shapes (cool-houses, arched hedges, umbrellas, etc) by specialised gardeners. This fashion began in the 19th century. We will tour a selection of these gardens. Lunch will be offered at one of the most impressive, Casa do Campo.We drive to Porto and check in at the Hotel Teatro, our base for the remaining 3 nights. This modern 4-star hotel is situated at the heart of the area of the city centre declared as World Heritage, which offers many excellent options for dinner.

Detailed Program Schedule

DAY 5The whole day is spent in Porto and surroundings, starting with a visit to Palácio de Cristal, built for the 1865 International Exhibition. The original building, by the architect of London’s Crystal Palace, was replaced by a modern dome shaped sports pavilion. The gardens are quite eclectic, combining remnants of the original Romantic design by Émile David with later additions. A splendid panorama over the river Douro and its bridges can be enjoyed here. We then head to the park of Serralves, a rarity in Portugal and indeed any country: a complete modernist garden by Jacques Gréber for a truly remarkable Art-Déco house designed in the 1930s. Three different garden design styles can be appreciated here, as Gréber’s design integrated and adapted several elements (pond, camellia garden, …) of the original 19th century Romantic garden and was in turn later combined with the modern landscaping (by João Gomes and Erika Skabar) of Álvaro Siza’s Museum of Contemporary Art, which opened in 2000.After some free time for lunch, we head to Leça do Balio to visit the garden of Alão, a stunning gem from the 17th century bravely protected and meticulously maintained by Francisco Vasconcelos.We return to the hotel with time for relaxing before the farewell dinner offered at Taylor’s, one of the most prestigious Port wine cellars. Taylor's is now over 300 years old and it remains a family firm. Its Barão de Fladgate restaurant offers a particularly privileged view to Porto’s World Heritage riverfront. Before dinner, there will be a guided tour of the cellars.

DAY 6We spend the morning at Villar d´Allen, once the summer residence of João Allen, the great-great-grandfather of the current owners. His son Alfredo Allen designed and planted the Quinta’s gardens together with Émile David. With their original design still largely intact, these are easily the most important private Romantic gardens in the city, a masterpiece of the 19th century. Beautiful paths intersect, with ponds, waterfalls, benches on picturesque corners, a pergola, a woodland garden and an old formal garden in front of the house. D. Isaura Allen will be happy to show us her magnificent collection of Portuguese camellias, rhododendrons, magnolias as well as many rare trees and shrubs which can be found here, in a rich combination of exotic colours and scents. The afternoon will be free for relaxing or visiting Porto’s city centre.

DAY 7After checking out from the hotel, we drive to the Quinta of Santo Inácio, in Vila Nova de Gaia, for a relaxing final morning. This site dates back to the 18th century. It contains a particularly old collection of camellias, azaleas and rhododendrons. Some rare trees can be found, including some monumental eucalyptus. A new garden, designed by Patrick Bowe, was added in the east area. Lunch will be offered at the Quinta’s restaurant before leaving for the airport.

An inspirational tour for garden lovers...

Monasteries, palaces and country houses… places that silently conceal their hidden treasures!

Rua Francisco Mendes, 30, 3º esq • 4715 243 Braga • Portugal • +351 936 077 462

AvailabilityThis itinerary is especially for the period between January and March, when the Camellias flower, or between March and May, to coincide with azalea flowering.

AccommodationThe hotels were carefully chosen for their high quality, convenient location and spectacular settings. A former monastery set on a hill overlooking the city of Guimarães (World Heritage Site), the Pousada of Santa Marinha is a historic luxury hotel featuring cloisters, formal and woodland gardens and a great collection of glazed tiles. At the very heart of Porto’s World Heritage area, Hotel Teatro is an elegant innovation set in shades of bronze and gold. It has been built on the same site where the revered 1859 Teatro Baquet once stood.

“There are more remarkable and attractive gardens here [Portugal]

relatively unknown to visitors than in any other European country.

Visitors … may be most forcefully struck by the charming heterogeneity

of gardens. The flora is rich, trees grow superbly and the remarkable

camellias grow to magnificent size”

Patrick Taylor in ‘The Oxford Companion to the Garden.