10 of the best things to do in Óbidos

16.12.2024 - 17:09 / lonelyplanet.com

Dec 16, 2024 • 9 min read

Óbidos is like its signature ginjinha (cherry liqueur): a sweet chocolate-clad treat with a cherry on top. Wrapped in crenelated walls, the well-preserved hilltop medieval village is a storybook tangle of azure- and canary-hemmed whitewashed homes, churches and monuments. It’s one of Portugal’s prettiest and most popular destinations, with many travelers taking the brisk one-hour bus ride for a day trip out of Lisbon.

Yet Óbidos’s anecdotes are arguably best savored slowly. Bibliophiles can lose themselves in the pages of this UNESCO City of Literature. All will feel regal when slumbering in the Vila das Rainhas’ – meaning Town of the Queens – old-world castle. And those who venture beyond the walls will encounter Óbidos as a coast-caressing municipality, not merely a medieval marvel. Complemented with a crowded calendar of visit-worthy festivals, Óbidos’ best experiences are as tempting as a box of chocolates.

Óbidos doesn’t waste any time in dazzling. Between the double-doorway Porta da Vila, the town’s tower-like entrance gate, a rich welcome of baroque blue and white azulejos (hand-painted ceramic tiles) flank the balcony’s oratory dedicated to Óbidos’s patron saint, Nossa Senhora da Piedade. More magical ceramics await in the town's show-stealing sacred centerpiece, Igreja de Santa Maria, its walls clad with 17th-century tiles, inspiring the local embroidery work.

Suitably inspired yourself, head to sidestreet Casa dos Azulejos, where Maria Daniela creates impeccable azulejos using the tin-glazed, majolica method. Find a gift, or, better still, pre-book a workshop to learn one of Portugal’s most influential art forms from a master, crafting a far more memorable souvenir of your own design. 

Detour: Find abundant (and often amusing) ceramics in Caldas da Rainha, a once royalty-revered spa town, a brief train ride north. Home to Bordallo Pinheiro Factory, named for and founded by one of Portugal’s most renowned ceramic artists with a penchant for cabbage-styled pottery, the factory store’s prices are usually a bargain compared to boutiques. 

Getting lost within the walls of compact Óbidos is challenging, but it’s a delight to try. And while an amble along well-trodden Rue Direta, the main thoroughfare linking Porta da Vila to the castle, will give your camera and carteria (purse) a workout, it’s admittedly become rather touristy. To see why the Portuguese voted Óbidos one of the Seven Wonders of Portugal, snake your way across the town, detouring to every bougainvillea-veiled corner.

En route, Óbidos’s history unfurls across Queen-linked churches. First bestowed to the Queen Consort by King Afonso II in 1210, Óbidos continued to be a (rather excessive) traditional royal wedding