Pousada de Guimaraes - Santa Marinha

In the city of Guimarães you find the majestic Pousada de Santa Marinha, National Award of Architecture in 1985. The Pousada is a result of the restoration of the Monastery dos Agostinhos from the twelfth century. It is around 2 km from the historical centre of the city (classified as a Heritage Site by UNESCO).

The Pousada de Santa Marinha is a fantastic escape, where tranquillity is an absolute certainty. Possessing a magnificent view of Guimarães and considered the cradle city, where the first king of Portugal, D. Afonso Henriques was born, and it was the Culture Capital of Europe 2012.

Through a painstaking restoration work by Portuguese architect Fernando Távora, the now Pousada, was born in 1975 resulting in the perfect union of historical past with contemporary comfort.

Apparently it was ordered to be erected by the founder of Guimarães, the Countess Mumadona, although some claim that it was D. Mafalda, wife of D. Afonso Henriques, who had it built, and gave it to the monks of the order of Santo Agostinho, who then changed it into a school of higher education.

The little gardens, the interior corners of the Pousada with granite sources, the surrounding Penha Park, the rich azulejo mosaics, the cloisters and multiple balconies are attributes that will not leave in indifferent.

The park and gardens of the Pousada de Santa Marinha, make a remarkable landscape, with its origin in the enclosure of the Augustinian Monastery, founded in the twelfth century.

The Pousada has 49 rooms (22 of which were monks’ chambers), 2 suites, a dining room, a small breakfast room - decorated with furniture taken from the spoils of other times in the Guimarães history.

The individually decorated quarters are installed in the old cloisters, containing modern commodities including air conditioning and cable TV.

The restaurant is a statement of the art of good eating in Guimarães. With luxury service and refined cuisine all of the dishes have reference to traditional Portuguese cuisine, where you can savour dishes such as Founder’s rabbit stew with chestnuts and mushrooms or Bísaro rockets with chestnuts and papas de serrabulho (a typical regional dish: pigs blood, which gives rise to the name sarrabulho, chicken, pork, sausage, ham, chorizo, cumin, lemon and bread or corn flour, among other ingredients). Accompanied by an affable wine of the region, makes this truly an experience in the art of good eating.

Guests can enjoy the outdoor pool or take walks through the scenic gardens of the Pousada or through the mountains of the historical city of Guimarães.