Coimbra Webcam Live
Largo Sé Velha with the Biblioteca Joanina and the Machado de Castro Museum, plus a rooftop view over the city. Coimbra, seat of one of the world's oldest universities, on the banks of the Mondego. Live 24/7.
Two webcams, from the old cathedral square to a city rooftop
Windy broadcasts a live view of Largo Sé Velha, taking in the Biblioteca Joanina and the Machado de Castro Museum; Hotel Oslo Coimbra runs its own rooftop webcam over the city centre.
Coimbra — a university city older than most nations
Coimbra grew around a university chartered by King Denis in 1290, transferred back and forth between Lisbon and Coimbra for over two centuries before settling permanently in the city in 1537. Today it remains one of the oldest universities in continuous operation anywhere in the world, its hilltop campus and the Rua da Sofia below it inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013 — recognised, in UNESCO's words, as an outstanding example of an integrated university city with its own urban typology and living ceremonial traditions.
Downhill from the university, Largo Sé Velha opens onto the Romanesque old cathedral, one of Portugal's finest surviving examples of the style, its steps the traditional stage for students in black capes singing the Fado de Coimbra. Nearby, the Museu Nacional de Machado de Castro sits directly above a Roman cryptoporticus, the underground galleries that once supported the forum of Roman Aeminium.
What the two cameras show
Largo Sé Velha
Windy · CoimbraLive view of the old cathedral square, with the Biblioteca Joanina and Machado de Castro Museum nearby.
Watch live →City Rooftop
Hotel Oslo Coimbra · DowntownLive rooftop view over downtown Coimbra from Hotel Oslo, with current local weather conditions.
Watch live →The Biblioteca Joanina, begun in 1717 under King John V, houses more than 60,000 volumes behind gilded chinoiserie shelving and trompe-l'œil ceilings. Each night, staff still cover the antique tables with leather cloths before a colony of bats is let loose to hunt insects that would otherwise damage the collection — then clean up before the library reopens.
Coimbra beyond the webcams
Biblioteca Joanina: widely considered one of the most spectacular libraries in the world, its three Baroque rooms connected by gilded arches.
Museu Nacional de Machado de Castro: Portugal's national museum built above the Roman cryptoporticus of ancient Aeminium.
Sé Velha: the Romanesque old cathedral, its fortified facade among the best-preserved of its style in Portugal.
A university has occupied the same hilltop above the Mondego for over seven centuries, and the city below it has organised itself around student traditions — capes, serenades, a library that still employs bats — ever since: Coimbra is less a city with a university than a university that grew a city around itself.
When to watch
Largo Sé Velha, late afternoon: for the warmest light on the cathedral's stonework as the square empties out.
Getting there: Largo Sé Velha sits on the hillside between Coimbra's Baixa and the University's Alta, a short walk up from the Mondego river, central Portugal.
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