Santarém

Santarem sits high above the Tejo on a bluff that has attracted rulers since Julius Caesar set up a military camp here in 61 BC. Despite earthquakes and a Napoleonic invasion, the city retains an extraordinary concentration of Gothic churches — earning it the title Capital do Gotico.

The best of them: the Se Catedral; the Convento de Sao Francisco, whose triple-naved church is the largest Gothic hall in Portugal; the Igreja do Santissimo Milagre, itself a pilgrimage destination housing a eucharistic miracle from the 13th century; and the Igreja de Sao Joao de Alporao, now a museum with an eccentric empty tomb — built for Duarte de Meneses, whose body was never recovered from the battlefield in North Africa, so only a single tooth was placed inside.

The Torre das Cabacas, the old clock tower, houses a small Time Museum and is named for the ceramic vessels (cabacas) once attached to amplify the sound of its bells. The Portas do Sol gardens — built into the old Moorish castle walls — are the highlight: the views over the Tejo valley and the Ribatejo plain are spectacular, and this is where the camino exits the city through the medieval Puerta de Santiago.