"Leiria" a Leiria Travel Page by haiamisa

We had left Aveiro in the morning of the 23rd of September, visited Tomar at noon and arrived to Leiria in the afternoon to spend the night there. The drive from Tomar was easy, we only had to follow the signs to Leiria and to keep to the road N113 all the way. The recidencial Dom Dinis was easy to find too as it was along the road coming from Tomar. Leiria is a large town and the royal castle (which we did not visit because of lack of time and because of being tired of all the walking by then) hangs almost vertically above the town. The old squares with cobbled streets and attractive gardens are nice to walk along and explore the town. We had a good meal at a restaurant close to the residencial and explored the old city and visited some shops. Our room had a big balcony and I enjoyed washing the laundry and hanging it to dry in the sun on the balcony. We had great views to the river and the town. Unfortunately we didn't take many pictures. We were tired of photography by then! The ones I have, taken from Dom Dinis, are on a travelogue. We left Leiria on the following day and drove to Batalha , Nazare, Obidos and finally to Peniche where we spent the following night.

Some history:
Leiria's castelo was one of the most important strongholds in Moorish Portugal, reconquered by Afonso Henriques as he fought his way south in 1135. The actual building you see today dates mostly from the 14th and 18th centuries. Within its walls stands a royal palace, with a magnificent balcony high above the Rio Lis. Leiria was the main residence of Dom Dinis, who gave the town to his beloved Queen Isabel along with Obidos, Abrantes, Porto de Mos and Trancoso.
At the heart of the old town is Praca Rodrigues Lobo, surrounded by beautiful arcaded buildings and dominated by a splendidly pompous statue of the eponumous 17th century poet. In fact, Leiria's literary connections go back much further than this - in 1480, the town had one of Portugal's first printing presses, which was run by JEWS who printed in HEBREW.