Chapel of São Miguel

Chapel of São Miguel tickets: which one to buy

The chapel belongs to the University of Coimbra and is entered on the university ticket, which also covers the great baroque library, the royal palace rooms and the tower. Buy the full version rather than the reduced one; the chapel on its own is not sold, and the library has timed entry with limited slots that sell out in summer, so book online the day before at least.

Guided tours of the university are offered in several languages and are worth taking because the site is a former royal palace and the layout makes no sense without explanation. Student-led tours cover the traditions, the black capes and the academic rituals, which are still very much alive here. The whole hilltop received a UNESCO listing in 2013. Allow two hours for the university as a whole, and note that the climb up from the lower town is steep; a lift near the market saves most of it.

Visiting Chapel of São Miguel: what to see

A chapel stood on this spot as part of the royal palace from the twelfth century. The present one was planned between 1517 and 1522 by Marcos Pires, who designed the side door in the Manueline manner, with the twisted ropes, corals and knots of that peculiarly Portuguese late Gothic, and it was finished by Diogo de Castilho after his death. The university bought the palace from the crown in 1597 and the chapel has served the students ever since.

Inside, the walls are covered from floor to cornice with blue and white tiles of the seventeenth century, the floor is tiled in patterns of 1613, and the painted ceiling dates from late in the same century. The mannerist altarpiece is gilded and crowded. Dominating everything is the baroque organ of the 1730s, its case painted with chinoiserie figures and dragons, with horizontal trumpet pipes projecting over the nave in the Iberian fashion. The organ is still played for university ceremonies and is one of the few Portuguese instruments of its date in working order.

Chapel of São Miguel opening hours and the best time to go

Coimbra is busiest in July and August and the library queues are longest then; spring and September are better in every way. The university opens through the day with a break in winter, and the chapel closes when it is in use for services or for university ceremonies, which are frequent in May and October. The great student festival at the end of the academic year, in early May, fills the city for a week with parades, concerts and the burning of ribbons, and accommodation is impossible;

it is a remarkable thing to witness if you are not trying to sightsee. Organ recitals in the chapel are held occasionally and announced on the university site. The view from the terrace outside, over the river and the roofs of the lower town, is free and open to anyone who walks up. Allow half an hour in the chapel itself. Student guides in academic dress often wait outside the chapel and will answer questions for nothing.