The Secrets of the Portuguese Capital of Culture

Known as the Venice of Portugal, this coastal city amazes with its architectural heritage and wonderful natural surroundings.

Two hours by train from Lisbon and 40 minutes from Porto on an Alfa Pendular, you will find Aveiro, the city of moliceiros and ovos moles. This coastal town was one of the four Portuguese cities that competed for the title of European Capital of Culture in 2027; however, the winner was Évora.

After the decision was made, and in order to take advantage of the other three nominations, the Portuguese government decided to reactivate the Portuguese Capitals of Culture until then, naming one of the remaining three cities each year until 2027. The first to receive this recognition has been Aveiro, followed by Braga in 2025 and Ponta Delgada in 2026.

Strolling through this picturesque canal city, your gaze is inevitably drawn to the occasional flashes of color that appear among the contemporary buildings. This architectural spectacle is part of the legacy left by the Art Nouveau period in Aveiro.

Originating in Belgium in the late 19th century, this artistic movement quickly spread across Europe, adopting a different identity in each country. The arrival of Art Nouveau in Portugal coincided with its end in the rest of the continent. It was sometime between 1907 and 1909 that the first buildings of this architectural style began to appear in the city, although the first specimen was erected in the house of the architect who brought it to Portugal, Francisco Silva Rocha, from Aveiro. Hence, the city soon became the Art Nouveau capital of the country.

The arrival of this architectural style coincided with a renaissance period that followed the opening of the Barra de Aveiro a few decades earlier. The exuberance and permanent festival of colors of Art Nouveau synchronized with Aveiro's desire for urban assertion. Thus, Art Nouveau became a symbol of this prosperity and, therefore, of a new Aveiro.

The most emblematic example is the Casa Major Pessoa, a city landmark, with its combination of lace stone and strong wrought iron, which led to it becoming the Art Nouveau Museum in 2008. Other buildings that stand out in the urban landscape of Aveiro include Farmácia Ala, Casa das Quatro Estações, and Vila Africana.

It's a cliché, but it's an inevitable cliché: Aveiro has been dubbed the "Portuguese Venice" for the canals that cross the waterfront and form part of the complex engineering system that controls the wild temperament of the city's lagoon. Over time, these waterways have ceased to be a mere utility and have become an undeniable part of Aveiro's identity, along with the vessels that cross them, the colorful moliceiros with which you can discover every corner of the city.

The various canals that wind along the Ria were created not only to control the rising waters but also to navigate them, transporting products made in the Aveiro lagoon (such as salt), which reached the Port of Aveiro and then moved to the city. These products came from the docks located on the Ria or from the small islets scattered along it.

There are three main canals within the city: the Canal do Cojo, the Central Canal, and the Canal de São Roque. The first two run through the center, with the old Captaincy of the Port of Aveiro as the axis, while the third skirts and connects with the Ria. The use of the canals in the city's economy is evident even in their toponyms: the Canal do Cojo, for example, was once called Ribeira das Azenhas, due to the concentration of these mills along its banks; and the area of the Canal de São Roque has always been called Bairro à Beira-Mar for being the point where many of Aveiro's salt pans were located, also due to its favorable geographical situation.

The idea of devouring a city may sound ridiculous; however, once you have experienced it, there are few doubts that wandering the streets and admiring the monuments is comparable to the experience of going from dish to dish.

The gastronomic symbol of Aveiro is undoubtedly the ovos moles, created by Dominican, Franciscan, and Carmelite nuns. This sweet was born out of the practical sense of the nuns, who used egg whites to clean their habits and kept the unused yolks. Seeking a way to make use of this part of the egg, the nuns decided to use it as a base for the flan.

It is very common for the egg tart dough to be presented with motives from Aveiro, such as moliceiros, or wrapped in wafer dough molded with marine motifs. Other typical sweets of the city include barricas, cavacas de São Gonçalinho, 24-hour pastries, raivas, and esquecidos.

As for savory dishes, eels are the protagonists: they are served with rice or in a stew. Some prefer them in soup, but the more daring and adventurous try them in cabidela or pickled. Beyond eels, other creatures caught in the lagoon appear on the plates: soles, mullets, sea bass, clams, and spider crabs, among others.

To the northwest of the city, the salt pans of Aveiro constitute a vast operation located in the Ria. The extraction of salt in the region may date back at least to Roman times, but the first reference is made in 959, in the donation by Countess Mumadona to a monastery in Guimarães.

As the formation of the Ria de Aveiro began in the 10th century, it remains unclear whether the salt pans were already located where they are today, or if they always depended on the Ria's presence to exist. The advances and setbacks in production have always depended on the instability of the Barra de Aveiro, whose migratory nature made it shift along the coast from Ovar almost to Mira.

The salt pans are a more or less complex set of channels, canals, reservoirs, and settling and evaporation basins whose final aim is salt production through the transfer of water. Aveiro presents an additional difficulty for this industry, as its humid climate does not favor the evaporation process that creates salt, which remains the main product of the region, both at a culinary level and as a raw material for the cosmetic industry.

The fleur de sel, which is the fine layer that floats on the surface of the salt pans, is a more refined type of salt that is used in salads to enhance the flavor of vegetables. Additionally, the use of salicornia, a small herb that grows in the salt pans and is considered gourmet in other countries, is beginning to be discovered.

Today, there are few functioning salt pans: of the 270 that were registered in the 1960s (when Aveiro was the second district with the most salt pans, after the 300 in Setúbal), by 1994 only 49 remained. Currently, there are fewer than ten. Natural changes in the lagoon, the effect of tides, and some works carried out in the Port of Aveiro add to the evident lack of competitiveness of traditional methods to explain this decline. Most dismantled salt pans have become fish farms or museums that show tourists and onlookers the hard work, and even the art, of extracting salt using traditional methods.

It was in 1973, still during the Estado Novo regime, that the Ministry of National Education created the University of Aveiro. The aim was to decentralize higher education in Portugal and change the university model by introducing new courses in innovative areas.

In the case of Aveiro, the focus was on Environmental Sciences and Education Sciences, which remain relevant today, although the institution has developed other cutting-edge areas that have positioned it internationally, specifically in various Engineering disciplines. Two interesting facts: one of the first Portuguese internet search engines, "Sapo," was created at the University of Aveiro, and Via Verde, an automatic toll payment system, also originated here.

The university campus, called Santiago, has 65 buildings spread over an area equivalent to 92 football fields. It is located next to an old salt pan complex and is the visual center of the innovation and novelty idea with which the university was founded. Its harmony with the natural environment stands out.

It wasn't until 1988, with the expansion plan coordinated by architect Nuno Portas, that this aspect was given to the university. The project's guidelines were simple: buildings could have a maximum of three floors; the roofs would be flat; the walls of the buildings would be covered with red brick, an identifiable material from the region of Aveiro. It was an attempt to blend modern architecture with the traditional spirit of the materials, to be classic without betraying the spirit of innovation. Some notable buildings include: the Department of Geosciences (1993), by Eduardo Souto de Moura; the library (1995), by Álvaro Siza Vieira; the rectory (2000), by Gonçalo Byrne and Manuel Aires Mateus; and the pedagogical, scientific, and technological complex (2000), by Vítor Figueiredo.

A few kilometers from the city of canals lies a labyrinth created by man and nature, in a work initiated by the latter and shaped by the former. Amid a group of islets that also hold their secrets, a vast set of dunes can be glimpsed where vegetation has reserved space to grow undisturbed, surrounded by the sea and practically isolated from everything else. This is the São Jacinto Dunes Natural Reserve.

The reserve is located at the tip of the peninsula of the same name, extending from Ovar to the parish of São Jacinto. It can be traversed from Aveiro in two ways: by boat from the port crossing the Ria de Aveiro; or by car and bus via the Varela Bridge, north of Murtosa.

The lands where the natural reserve now stands are recent and emerged with the advance of the Ria, starting in the 10th century from Ovar. Previously, São Jacinto used to be a swamp, home to mosquitoes that caused health issues in the city of Aveiro. The problem began to be resolved in 1884, when the Forest Services carried out afforestation work. It was necessary to stabilize the sands and create new territory. The works were long and lasted until the 1930s. Some time later, in 1979, this area of 70 hectares was declared a Natural Reserve.

The number of animal species found in the São Jacinto dunes is vast, and we can only mention a few. The bird population is the most diverse, highlighted by geese, cormorants, some species of gulls and ducks, all of which inhabit a large pond that emerged in the 1980s after a devastating fire consumed half the vegetation. Hence, the pond is known as "Pateira."

Cagaréus versus ceboleiros is probably a rivalry that few have heard of; however, it has wreaked havoc in the city of Aveiro for centuries. Some theories say that these two terms began to be used in the late 15th century when, due to the city's expansion outside the walls, a new urbanization known as Vila Nova emerged. There, families of workers linked to the sea and maritime trade settled. They were called cararéus.

To the south of the town live those dedicated to agriculture and livestock, activities linked to the land. They were called ceboleiros. Separated by their professional activities (some live in Cimo da Vila, others lower down), they became rivals for a simple reason: who was worth more or worked harder, those from the sea or those from the land?

Nevertheless, there is no absolute certainty about the origin of these terms. Cagaréu is taken almost literally since "cagarete" was the name given in Aveiro to the rear part of the boats. The sailors who lived at sea and often spent several days without landing could not overlook their human needs. Out of etiquette, sailors, those same ones who lived in Beira-Mar, would go to the rear of the boat to relieve themselves; hence that part of the boat was called "cagarete" or "cagaréu." The specificity of the term usually refers to the inhabitants of the parish of Vera Cruz.

As for the ceboleiros, the name emerged due to the reforms that Infante Dom Pedro, son of Dom João I, made in the urbanism of Aveiro, increasing the walls and also the number of entrances to the city. As a consequence of this expansion, the number of parishes grew, and from the original parish of São Miguel emerged four parishes, one of them being Vera Cruz.

Next to the church dedicated to the saint was the old Onion Market, where the inhabitants of Cimo da Vila, the farmers, sold their onions. Thus, the name ceboleiros became permanently linked to this community.