COIMBRA, a city of Portugal, capital of the province of Beira, on the north bank of the Mondego, 115 miles N.N.E. of Lisbon, in 40° 14' N. lat. and 8° 24' W. long. It is built for the most part on rising ground, and presents from the other side of the river a picturesque and imposing appearance; though in reality its houses have individually but little pretension, and its streets are, almost without exception, narrow and mean. It derives its present importance from being the seat of the only university in the kingdom,—an institution which was originally established at Lisbon in 1291, was transferred to Coimbra in 1306, was again removed to Lisbon, and was finally fixed at Coimbra in 1527. There are five faculties,—theology, law, medicine, mathematics, and philosophy, with fifty-two professors and twenty-one substitutes; and in 1874-5 the number of students was 667, of whom 15 came from the Azores and 11 from Brazil. The library contains 80,000 volumes, and the museums and laboratories are on an extensive scale. In connection with the medical faculty there are regular hospitals; the mathematical faculty maintains an observatory from which an excellent view can be obtained of the whole valley of the Mondego; and outside of the town there is a botanic garden (especially rich in the flora of Brazil), which also serves as a public promenade. Among the other educational establishments are a military college, a royal college of arts, and an episcopal seminary. The city is the seat of a bishop, suffragan to the archbishop of Braga; and it possesses two cathedrals, eight parish churches, and several conventual buildings. The new cathedral is of little interest; but the old is a fine specimen of the Romanesque style, and retains portions of the mosque which it replaced. The ...principal churches are Santa Cruz, of the 16th century, and San Salvador, founded by Esterão Martinez in 1169. On the bank of the Mondego stand the ruins of the once splendid monastery of Santa Clara, established by Don Mor Dias in 1286; and on the other side of the river, crossed by a fine bridge of several arches, is the celebrated Quinta das lagrimas, or Villa of Tears, where Inez de Castro is believed to have been murdered. The town is supplied with water by means of an aqueduct of 20 arches. The trade is purely local, as the river is navigable only in flood, and the port of Figueira is 20 miles distant; but there are manufactures of pottery, linen, cloth, and articles of horn; and a three days’ market is held yearly in front of the Clara monastery. The country to the south is the most fertile and salubrious in Portugal, and the neighbourhood is accordingly thickly studded with farm-houses and villas. The population of the city in 1864 was 18,147.
Coimbra is identified with the ancient Conembτica, the site of which, however, seems to have been a little to the south. The city was for a long time a Moorish stronghold, but in 1064 it was captured by Ferdinand the Great and the Cid. Previous to the 16th century it was the capital of the country, and no fewer than seven kings—Sancho I. and II., Alphonso I., II., and III., Pedro, and Ferdinand—were born within its walls. In 1755 it suffered considerably from the earthquake. In 1810 a division of the French army, under Massena, were made prisoners by the English in tli£ neighbourhood. In 1834 Don Miguel made the city his headquarters; and in 1846 it was the scene of a Miguelist insurrection.
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