Historians believe the dramatic topography of the city right on the right bank of the river had much to do with the first settlement in the area. Coimbra’s location on a geological uplift in the lower half of the Mondego basin served the dual need for defense and access to fertile agricultural terrain in the surrounding plains. The acropolis sees a rise of 75 meters over a distance of 250 meters, from the bank of the Mondego to the university patio at the top of the hill – that’s a slope about 30 percent! The city on the hill had a wall built around it for defense purposes during the Roman era; the remains of the wall and its gates are still visible in several parts, and its story told today in the Nucleus of the Walled City interpretive center at Arco de Almedina.
Here are some visuals that give an idea of the abrupt topography and the relation of the city and the river (click to enlarge image):
Late 16th century illustration of Coimbra by Hoefnagel (not to scale). Note: Difference of steepness on the west slop versus the east slope; Agriculutral areas surrounding the city; Bridge across river is Ponte Santa Clara; Barcas (barges) by the bridge; Island in the river; Two men in the academic cape, today still worn by Coimbra fado singers
1669 depiction of Coimbra by Pier M. Baldi. Note: Expansion of urbanized areas, old convent Santa Clara-a-Velha.
Topo model at the Nucleus of the Walled City interpretive center, housed in the Arco de Almedina.
View from tower allowed oversight of agricultural areas across river.
Arco de Almedina
Coimbra today
The river has also served as a driver of commerce in agricultural and primary material products. The navigability of Rio Mondego, and Coimbra’s strategic location between the upper and lower Mondego basins as well as between the North-South transportation axis between Lisbon and Porto, both encouraged the transportation of goods. In mountain barcas (barges) such as the one on exhibit at Parque Verde, traders transported timber and wine from the upper Mondego valley down to Coimbra, before distributing these products down the river to Figuera de Foz at the mouth of the Mondego, or to the northern and southern regions of Portugal by land. Goods transported upstream from the lower valleys included fish and salt.
Barca Serrana (Mountain Barge) on exhibit at Parqe Verde
As trade grew, so did the commercial area of Baixa, or baixinha, sometimes also called the "Downtown," outside the walls and at the foot of the city on the hill. Agricultural goods came into Coimbra mainly through Largo de Portagem across the bridge (Ponte de Santa Clara) from the left bank of the Mondego. Commercial activities in the 16th century were organized around the now-gone Praça Velha, where traders of iron, linen, wool, cane, and pottery wares gathered. Regional routes that brought goods out of Coimbra took advantage of the flatter plains at the southwestern foot of the acropolis; the north-south transportation axis occupied the present rua Visconde da Luz et rua Ferreira Borges southwest of the city, which is underlain by the least steep terrain.
Rua Visconde da Luz (top) looking north towards Praça 8 de Maio, where Igreja Santa Cruz and the Camara Municipal (Municipality office, bottom) are.
Rua Ferreira Borges (top) looking south towards Largo de Portagem (bottom)
The location of the city and university on high ground also protected it from floods. Along with the advantages of the river came its problems, of which flooding was one of the most pertinent. The construction of levees and dykes began as early as in the 13th century when the university of Coimbra was permanently established here. Merely a year after the construction of the Santa Clara-a-Velha convent in 1330, severe flooding engulfed the area, with subsequent flooding constantly filling the convent with the silt. The problem became so intolerable in the 16th century that a new church had to be built, the Santa Clara-a-Nova, higher up the left bank, safer from the shifting river. The old convent was abandoned in 1677 when it was completely covered with silt.
The capricious river earned its nickname “Rio Basófias” (or Fickle River); the older generation recalls the bane of winter floods and the sandy, dry appearance in the summer. Before the construction of a dam downstream at Ponte de Açude, the river welcomed waders in its braided, sandy summertime channel, but the dam has given the river its now more stable, lake-like appearance.
Santa Clara a Velha under renovation
Waders in the 1950s
Throughout the turn of the century, the city gradually turned its back on the river. Industrialization in the second half of the 18th century expanded regional trade in Coimbra to include retail and food products and artisanal workshops. During this period, the role of the river in trade and navigation complemented that of the railroad and inter-city roads along the right and left banks of the river. The wharfs Cais das Ameias constructed in 1871 further hardened the right bank of the river. The new train station (Estação Nova) just downstream of Ponte Santa Clara was built with little consideration for the river.
However, the river has always been celebrated in the cultural history of Coimbra and Portugal in general. Rio Mondego was often referred to as “Rio das Musas” (River of the Muses), and featured in fado music, especially in the Coimbra style. The celebratory role of the river continues to this day, especially visible during the week of student debauchery usually culminating in a concert at the pavilion on the left bank.
Concert area at other side of river (left bank)
The traditional song “Fado Corrido de Coimbra” suggests the beauty of the river, with its “moonlit bells,” which apparently inspired the Queen-Saint Isabel. The river is where she would bring her “saudade,” that infamously untranslatable Portuguese word that more or less means the sadness coming from yearning and longing for something long gone and unrecoverable (such as one’s youth or long-lost friends).
Listen to it here.
Fado Corrido de Coimbra
Coimbra, rio Mondego,
Dos teus sinos ao luar
Santa Isabel deu-te rosas
E as saudades há-de dar
Hei-de perguntar um dia
Ao vento que diz às flores
Para saber se é só uma
Esta linguagem de amor
Fui encher a bilha e trago-a
Vazia como a levei
Mondego que é da tua água
Que é dos prantos que eu chorei
Rough English translation:
Coimbra, Mondego river,
With your moonlit bells
Saint Elizabeth (1) gave you roses
And longings (2) shall give
I shall someday ask
To the wind what does he tell to the flowers
To find out if there is but a single
Language of love
I went to fill the water jar, but I bring it
As empty as I took it
Mondego, where's your water
Where are the tears I wept
Translation comments:
1. Reference to the Portuguese Holy Queen Elizabeth, wife of king D. Dinis, which, caught carrying bread for the poor over her skirt, was questioned by the king "What are you carrying mylady?", answered "Roses, Mylord", and droping the fold-up skirt produced... roses. This was from then on known as "The Miracle of the Roses".
2. The word "saudade" is unstranslatable. It is "longing", "yearning", "homesickness" and "blues" combined, and more. Basically, it is a feeling of missing something very much, particurly intense, and often associated with things you'll never see again, like college days or youth days, or dead people and faraway places.
Source: http://home.utad.pt/~leonelm/adlibitum/fadocorrido.html
Due to its historically important role, one of the main objectives of the Polis program in Coimbra is to rejuvenate the riverfront and reconnect Rio Mondego to the residents of Coimbra. As we see through history, the river has shaped the physical, economic, and cultural development at the local, regional, as well as national scale. As I share with you my findings from the interviews, we hear from local stakeholders who have followed the project the effectiveness of the intervention in achieving this goal.
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