Beaches in Figueira da Foz

We return once again to Figueira da Foz! In the previous article we spoke about its historic centre, and today we are going to stop off at its beautiful beaches.

In this article we are going to enter into the Mondego bay, that occupies the beaches of Buarcos and Figueira da Foz, leaving us other, less-touristy beaches but equally as recommendable ones. They are also found in the municipality of Figueira da Foz but more to the South of the Mondego river, to arrive here, make a stop here on a walking detour, or take the bus from the same station as the train station.

How to arrive

I'm not going to waste too much time on how to get to Figuiera da Foz as it is already explained in detail in the article about the historic centre of Figueira da Foz, but if you come to the station, basically you have to follow along and in 5 minutes you are at the beach. It is possibly the best beach connected to Coímbra, which is what makes it a better tourist spot than other beaches in the area.

The beaches in Figueira da Foz

In this article I am not going to focus solely on the beaches but also what one can find on them. In the previous article, we were at the São Pedro church, if you go straight, you will end up at the Fuertes de Buarcos.

Around there it has a beach and the remains of Los Fuertes - the forts. The truth is that you can barely see the beach throughout all of the walk. From the forts, you feel a great sensation of being in a fort looking a the sea and the beach. There are three forts, Concepción, San Pedro, and Nazaret. Their origin is from the 15th century when they acted as defense against pirates during the time of Infante Don Pedro. Their structure has been maintained well and in two of them there are great views of the beach and Buarcos.

There is little more to say even though the forts are conserved, it seems slighly curious to me since there are barely any of these structures remaining her in Portugal, that I know of, only in Matosinhos and in Madeira. From he we will go bit by bit towards returning to the beautiful park that I mentioned before

Before that, we will pass by the "Capela da Nossa Senhora da Conceição", a small hermitage from the 16th century, on the front of it it honours "Nossa Senhora das Ribas", but during the next century it switched to honour the Virgen de la Concepción. It was looted by the English in the year 1602 stealing part of its wealth. It is a shame that it used to be shut as well. On its exterior, its obvious that a restoration is needed.

Near there, the pelourinho de Buarcos or the newest parish church pillar. I can't say much about it, just that it was erected in 1782 in a Solomonic style. With the pillar we will have seen all of the heritage of the town of Buarcos, in reality Buarcos, similarly to Tavarede, is united with Figueira da Foz in the way that it is difficult to know where one starts and the other ends.

From the park we will continue along the Figueira beachfront, I will make various detours, which of course you don't have to do. The Figueira beach, like its beachfront, is a beach with many buildings even though the Buarcos zone only has modern-style buildings on its beachfront. The zone is similar to the Malvarrosa beach, with small beach-front houses whilst the other part of the beach seems more like the beaches of Gandía or Benidorm.

On the second street on the left (well, on the right we arrive at the sea) we will detour down the street called "Rua José Bracourt", where we will find the remains of another fort called "Fortim do Palheiros" which is situated within a historical town that received the name of Palheiros. It was built during the 16th century. The place highlights two things: the first being the lack of space in between the monuments, this place is found fit between two buildings, the space is minimal and secondly, the views will be little more than of another building.

From here, we will return once again to the beachfront, so we can visit the "oasis". What is an Oasis? Basically, it is a sort of small green corner away from prying eyes, where there is a small lagoon with a few ducks. There is not much else to say other than the views are great.

On the next street over, I made a small detour in order to arrive at "Coliseo figueirense", a modern bull-fighting plaza. In itself, it is nothing of note but it is a good place to watch things, nothing remarkable and totally dispensible. Although, close around here there is a small chapel, its origins unknown and not on maps, I suppose it will serve as a home for someone, but it is strange as it is the highest point in this town.

From here I went towards the famous Casino de Figueira da Foz, one of the oldest casinos on the Iberian Peninsula from 1927. Important casinos in Portugal include those of Estoril and in Madeira. Originally it was made of wood, and now made of glass, it seems a little ugly to me as it is right in the middle of historical Figuiera da Foz amidst a lot of modern houses.

The casino brings all of the riches anyone could want to Figueira, but for me it is just a piece of cement in the middle of a historic centre and frankly, it is wrong. Next to it we have an older casino, nowadays used as a club with its beautiful façade. The historical centre of Figueira da Foz we see a large amount of late n19th century houses and early 20th century. Equally in Coímbra we have houses that are in a good state of conservation and also ones that urgently need restoring. The photograph below is a good example:

After being in the historical centre for a bit, I returned once again to the beachfront. in this final part of the beach I found other myself with symbols of Figueira da Foz like the "Torre do Relógio" - the Clock Tower.

The clock tower was build during the reign of the dictator Salazar, during the "Estado Novo", created by the architect João António de Aguiar in 1943. It was used as home to a lighthouse and in 1949 they added the clock. It was restored in 2014.

I think it is more symbolic than aesthetic as in itself it is a concrete tower with a clock, and the photo is beautiful due to the beach and not because of the concrete tower.

Finally, we are going to see the "Forte da Catarina", together with the Buarcos fort and the Palheiros fort, these three forts formed a defense system infront of the estuary of Mondego. They were constructed at the end of the 16th century. In their interiors, you can find a chapel and a lighthouse that can be glimpsed from the outside. Similarly to the Sotto Mayor palace, or the majority of churches, it is closed to the public which to me is quite sad, as they belong to the local government and if it is not open, it is due to the lack of earnings of it.

And although you can return home, if it coincides with the sunset, you can instead take a stroll towards the Figueria lighthouse, there are two or three but you can arrive at the last of them. At this time of year (March), it is the perfect time, as well as during April to visit Figueira. The temperature is great, not too cold or too hot, and there are not many people but neither is it deserted.

In conclusion, if you are ever in Coímbra, you should visit Figueira da Foz and its beaches. My reccommendation is that you spend the whole day, like in my case, so that you can get to know the city better. It is certain that you cannot compare Coímbra in terms of monuments, but you can spend a day visiting the heritage here and enjoy walking along all the beaches.