Praça Sá da Bandeira | The baroque 17th-century Sé Cathedral of Santarém
Santarém is a live study of Roman, Gothic, and Manueline architectures. The city is also known in Portugal and Brazil for being the place where Pedro Álvares Cabral, the "discoverer" of Brazil, is buried. Perched on a hilltop, gazing at the wide plateau of fertile soil stretching to the Rio Tejo, Santarém is famous for its Gothic architecture, its regional gastronomy, its country folk, and bullfighting. The surrounding plateau, known for intensive farming, horse breeding, and animal husbandry, nurtures the country.
The region has become a property magnet for Portuguese investors based in Lisbon and Americans from Texas and beyond. Buyers on both sides of the Atlantic share a real estate interest in the Santarém Historic Center and the city's outskirts. They believe that current investments in the region, with still greatly affordable offers, are the place to be. And the figures prove their points:
"Santarém is where it is most profitable to buy a house for investment in the summer of 2024, with a gross return of around 8%." (Source: TPN, Oct. 2024).
Take this charming corner townhouse on Rua João Afonso, in the heart of Santarém Historic Center. The building offers 70m² over three floors, with an attic and a stunning roof terrace gazing over the monuments of the Gothic Capital. And it gets better. The house allows for residential quarters as well as a hospitality business, with a door serving as its main entrance.
Imagine having your own house with a view and a café-restaurant to run as a business on a highly pedestrian tourist street with 28 seats, a professional kitchen, and an equipped bathroom. That’s a perfect way to reshape a lifestyle with a business plan attached and agency for interior design. The full house is just €165,000 / US$180,000 before renovations.
We spoke to Bruno Pellegrini, a local real estate agent: “Most foreign investors are sensitive to the history of Santarém and adamant about preserving the original features of our Historic Center. Most investments today are focused on the Santarém Historic Center and the immediate surroundings, where an original Quinta could be offered from €400,000 until over a million, before renovations.”
Investing in Santarém keeps part of its history tightly alive.
The city became part of the Kingdom of Portugal in 1147 through the conquest by Dom Afonso Henriques. Santarém, like Mafra and Sintra, is the cradle of an original European architectural style that serves as a distinctive signature.
If Sintra became the first center of European Romantic architecture in the 19th century, and Mafra is visited for its National Palace, a magnificent 18th-century blend of Baroque and Italian Neoclassical art by architect Johann Friedrich Ludwig, Santarém is known as the Capital of Gothic Architecture in Portugal and a recommended weekend trip by all means.
Mafra's National Palace | Sintra's Regaleira Palace | Santarém's Igreja de Santa Maria da Graça.
The historic center, with its numerous monuments reflecting centuries of religious practices, along with the Jardim das Portas do Sol, is a jewel to experience from dawn to dusk. The Garden of the Door of the Sun offers a stunning 360-degree viewpoint over the Rio Tejo, with a royal-style balcony chiseled from millennia-old Roman stones. Here is a city worth an encyclopedia of stories and history, fit for a Netflix period movie or podcast series narrating its historical influences and confluences through impactful formats.
“We are the guardians of time.”
No one better than Anabela Neves knows how important it is to convey the story of Santarém with a contemporary mindset. She will tour you around the current exhibition of sacred sculptures at Igreja [church] da Misericórdia and introduce you to the Organ, a rare art piece signed by Antonio Xavier Machado e Cerveira, a master of the genre. Built in 1818, imagine Mendelssohn’s interpretation of ‘St Matthew Passion’ by Bach, dated from 1829, in its magnificent bowels.
Santarém is located in the Ribatejo (the banks of the Tagus). In 2008, its districts blended with a few former districts of Lisbon to become Lezíria do Tejo. From Old Galician-Portuguese lezira and from Arabic جَزِيرَة (jazīra, “island”), Lezíria is the Portuguese word for floodplain or freshwater marsh. Santarém is the seat of the intermunicipal community.
To capture the region’s identity with teased taste buds, download the “Guide of the Restaurants Certified of Lezíria do Tejo.” The guide showcases a palette of inventive cuisine thanks to the fertile soil and waters abounding with fish that attracted seasonal workers to the region. Fish like ratinhos, caramelos, and gaibéus (from Beiras), avieiros (Vieira de Leiria), varinos (Ovar), cagaréus (Aveiro), and barrões (Alto Alentejo) are among other schools of fish that could gracefully land on your plate.
Elvas in Alto Alentejo and Santarém in Ribatejo, are brothers-in-arms. Both saw three religions cohabiting. Under the Moorish Taifa of Santarém (1144-1145), it’s possible that the city’s main mosque was located on the site of the Igreja de Santa Maria de Marvila.
In the 14th century, the Jewish quarters were established within the S. Martinho parish. Near Travessa da Judiaria, the 'long-standing presence of the Jewish community probably explains an attachment to the town,’ as one can read in the Encyclopedia Judaica. Travessa da Judiaria is a hyphen between the Gothic marvel, Igreja de Santa Maria da Graça, and the Jardim das Portas do Sol.
Elvas and Santarém also pair in their fierce will to seize the future. Soon they will be sent on an economic orbit thanks to their commuting developments. In Elvas, cultural and hospitality experiences prepare for the fast train (TGV) between Lisbon and Madrid.
And Santarém has just been approved as an alternative to Fátima for the new airport. Last year, more than 6.8 million people visited Fátima’s Sanctuary, which justifies the need for an airport in the region.
Other real estate analysts see Santarém as an ideal hub in the center of the country, with multiple destinations within reach. Like Torres Vedras, the city is among the 'best places to live about an hour from Lisbon' by car, and the region is well-served by fast trains and old-school idling trains [alike the one we chose], depending on your playlist mood.
Santarém is within close reach of many wonders via short drives:
40 minutes from Óbidos
Over 80 km from Lisbon, 55 minutes by train
55 minutes from Torres Vedras
1 hour 20 minutes from Sintra
Summers are spent at Praia da Foz do Arelho and Praia do Bom Sucesso. Both beaches border the [wild] Atlantic Ocean and the [still] Lagoa de Óbidos, offering the best of both natural worlds and an ideal playground for kids, dogs, and even grownups.
And Baleal, just 50-minute drive away, calls for a weekend of flirting with the hot surf scene of the Peniche Peninsula.
If you live in Lisbon and wish to scout Santarém, a bus ride and 48 hours will leave a memorable imprint. Here is a projection:
From Lisbon (Oriente) to Santarém on the glam Flixbus, with AC and Wi-Fi, you’ll be there in 55 minutes (14:25-15:20) and back Sunday after sunset (19:40-20:35). Outbound trip costs about €9. Yes, that cool!
Picture what your sunset will be like at 6 pm on the magnificent Praça Sá da Bandeira, at the feet of the baroque 17th-century Cathedral-Jewel of Santarém. Enjoy a glass of light-gold vinho branco from the Premium Quinta da Tradição 2022 at the terrace of the delicatessen-bar, Loja da Tradição.
Santarém holds one of the most beautiful Praças (squares) in Portugal.
Softly lean back and observe the kids playing freely in a carless square. Sliding next to them, teens are skateboarding its soft slope. On the cathedral’s half-circle staircases, people are chatting and chilling.
You will feel so relaxed that you’ll order another glass or buy a few bottles of the deliciously crisp white wine (€3.50 per glass). That’s because the city knows how to carve time out of urban stress with silences, giggles, a soft breeze, and the languor timeless beauty always conveys.
Before diving into Santarém’s wealth of historical magnitude, let’s give credit to The People of Santarém. You will be blessed by their truthful warmth and love for the city and region.
The most elegant queen of the city is generously posing for us after her breakfast at Pastelaria Bijou, a terrace facing the Sé Cathedral. Dress code: dare flowers!
At Igreja da Misericórdia (Church of Mercy), Annabela Neves sparks life into the church-museum with intelligence and creative wit. Here she stands in what will become: O Pátio de Leitura [The Reading Patio].
Anabela Neves, curator-guide at Church-Museum Misericórdia
Later she will also give you time to photograph the sacred sculptures with their carved expressions of contrition, faith, and modesty in the Vermeer light of an early afternoon. It’ll feel like a selfie workshop without anyone breathing over your neck or blaming you for the lame takes.
More on the churches in Santarem.
The church and its Baroque façade were erected in 1559. Its late Renaissance interior was rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake, with the rare three naves aligning on one level by architect Miguel de Arruda, who had famously proven his mastery with the Cathedral of Miranda and the Church of Santo Antão in Évora, among others.
Misericórdia means mercy, compassion, or charity. A friar is a member of religious orders of men, especially the four mendicant orders (Augustinians, Carmelites, Dominicans, and Franciscans). Mendicant in Latin means poor beggar, which also relates to the Portuguese specific Mendicant Gothic Architecture.
[Top] Chairs waiting to be displayed around the tables of the gastro pop-up 'Chefs on Fire'. Viewpoint from The Portas do Sol Gardens, which are the ruins of the Alcáçova castle, serving as the royal residence in the European Middle Ages.
Santarém is a circle of culture that bubble bathes in chlorophyll. Nature is all around as if in a royal-green velvet casket. On the train, the far-stretching plateau of the Ribatejo is traversed by furrows of irrigation forming silver lights. Its green cultivations and charcoal brown freshly labored soil are rarely interrupted. Here a Quinta in ruins, there the carcass of an old factory, further down an agricultural estate in full operation.
At Azambuja, the train seems to stop for good. In a debonair mood, it slowly takes off again, as if pleased to trick you. The green of the fields evokes the shiny green of golf clubs. At Reguengo, a man coming from the fields parks his bike full of sticky soil near his seat as if it were a horse. Setil is a tired station with no voyageurs awaiting. Soon, a forest takes shape on just one side. The man and his bike-horse step off the train at Santana-Cartaxo. The wetlands become rich in trees and add voluptuous hills to the landscape. At Vale de Santarém, the vegetation grows higher and lusher in monochrome green.
Santarém Station, alike its covered market has azulejos [ceramic tiles] telling the city's stories in blue ink. The small station is located outside of town. A bus driver stretches his cigarette break a bit longer until enough people gather in the queue. Ten minutes later, you’re in the city center.
The sun on the second day of July is already cruel and blinding at 10 am on the main square and its elegant Sé Cathedral [1672-1711]. The labyrinthine streets and the city's many churches will serve as refuges, each a vault of shade and stories.
Praça Sá da Bandeira.
Igreja de Santa Clara - Santarém
The monument dates from the 13th century, under the order of Afonso III (1248-1279). The architecture follows the canons of Mendicant Gothic. Under the Salazar regime, the church underwent a polemical restoration stripping down its decorum and part of its history, to restore the austerity required by the Order of Saint Clare founded in 1212, and members of an enclosed order of nuns in the Roman Catholic Church. The large Gothic rose window is uniquely made out of one stone.
Do not imagine Santarém to be one of these sleepy museum-cities napping in the center of France. This is a city with a playful social life with many hairdressers, nail parlors, and the friendly boyhood of King's, the barbershop.
Strong 3corações coffee made in Brazil awaits at the Brazilian shop. Chocolataria Capelo has on display gourmet ice creams with a best seller Hazelnut flavor for €2.90 in a jar.
On its outskirts, the Santarém Retail Park has 12 stores, 26.185 square meters, and a car park with a capacity for 1.255 spaces. It is a convenient outpost that supplies the whole region.
Rewinding the day, you'll be tipping your hat to Annabela, Luis, and Bruno, the active sentinels of the city's glorious past, who are throwing the dice for its promising future.
Bruno, from Perugia in Italy, cares preserving the Historical Center’s original features. Annabela finds inventive ways to showcase centuries-old artefacts and narratives. Luis shares the story of the Gothic church of Santa Maria da Graça with a volubile flow while swiping black and white archive images on his mobile. He studied tourism and takes his role seriously. He would go as far as to drop his iPhone, held by a string, between the tiny interstice of a massive stone flooring, to capture and share a detail of a secretive tomb in the basement.
Luis Alberto will tour you and share the story of the Gothic Church Santa Clara.
Morality: it takes two friends to make a foreign place home, and a handful of truly welcoming people with vibrant love for a city and a region, to build an unforgettable memory and set an environment alive!
On the train back to Lisbon, the sky and the land are hemmed by pink. At Santana-Cartaxo, a well-built young man carries on his right shoulder a giant bag of dog food. Azambuja is granted no more than one passenger. It’s 8:40 pm after all. Vila Nova da Barquinha is a cemetery of trucks, announcing the industrial wastelands at the outskirts of most capital cities. Soon the hip Beato/Marvila exhibits its post-industrial plants turned art scene, and you’ll be amazed at how derelict it looks from the train. A perfect reminder that no matter how much or how little a place has history, it is for the people to spark the lights and trigger interest. A way to close this day in Santarém, with the Portuguese illustre explorers of the 14th century.
Igreja da Graça. The 14th-century tomb of Pedro de Menezes Portocarrero and his wife Dona Beatriz Coutinho. He was a nobleman and military figure. And the first Portuguese governor of Ceuta. The sides of the tomb feature scenes from the Annunciation and the Stigmatization of St. Francis, as well as figures of Franciscan monks and Poor Clare nuns.
Pedro Álvares Cabral, buried in the church, discovers Brazil on April 22nd, 1500, when a fleet led by him reached the Brazilian coast for the first time in history. In Aurélio de Figueiredo's painting, Cabral is depicted in the center left, pointing.
"The discovery of Brazil was an episode in the creation of a Portuguese commercial empire which in less than a hundred years extended to four continents. The Portuguese established West African coastal stations from early in the fifteenth century. In 1499 Vasco da Gama returned in triumph to Lisbon from his epoch-making voyage to India round the Cape of Good Hope. In the following year, King Manuel I sent a fresh expedition to India, of thirteen ships and 1,200 men. With da Gama pleading exhaustion, the command was given to a trusted courtier named Pedro Álvares Cabral, still only in his thirties.”
–Richard Cavendish, History Today, Volume 50 Issue 4 April 2000 Pedro Álvares Cabral was never given another mission after his Indian expedition. He retired to his estate in the Beira Baixa province of Portugal and spent his remaining years there. His tomb at Igreja da Graça, Santarém, was identified in 1848 by the Brazilian historian Francisco Adolfo Varnhagen.
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