Here, we leave some of the more pleasant titles given to the city and the respective explanation.
See also: An itinerary through Braga’s Baroque
Archbishops’ City
The archdioceses of Braga was founded even before Portugal and was, for a very long time, the only one in the country. At the time, it was the most important destination of pilgrims in the Iberian Peninsula and, despite having lost some of its previous preponderance, it still is until today a city with a great significance religiously. For these reasons, Braga is still known nowadays as the Archbishops’ City.
Portuguese Rome
In the 16th century, Braga’s Archbishop Dom Diogo de Sousa implemented profound changes and restorations to the city. Inspired by what he had seen in Rome, he created a new plant for Braga, making it grow in size and filling it with innumerous new squares and churches, a characteristic that Braga keeps until today. It’s for this motive that Braga, city of uncountable churches, is still known nowadays as the “Portuguese Rome”.
Capital of the Baroque
Braga is one of the Portuguese cities with the higher index of Baroque monuments. It was home for such important names to the architectonic style like sculptor Marceliano de Araújo and architect André Soares, responsible for the fronts of Congregados Church, Falperra Chapel and Raio Palace. Walking through the city, it’s impossible not to notice the typical traces of the style that are present all around. As such, Braga is precisely known for the title of Capital of the Baroque.
“Penico do céu”
Braga is, according to outsiders, an extremely rainy city. And people from Braga may not even notice but the raining levels of the city are, in fact, one of the highest in the country. So, Braga is popularly known as “penico do ceú”, which literally translates to “heaven’s potty” in English. This name makes the city, therefore, be known like the place where heaven goes to clean out of residual waters.