Braga Cathedral (Sé Catedral)

Braga Cathedral, the Sé de Braga, was founded around 1070 under Archbishop Pedro, making it the oldest cathedral in continental Portugal and predating the country's own founding as an independent kingdom by roughly 70 years. Built over the ruins of an earlier Suebi-era church destroyed during the Moorish incursions, the cathedral preserves Romanesque stonework in its main portal and side walls beneath later Gothic vaulting, Manueline decorative additions from the early 16th century, and an 18th-century Baroque high altar and organ cases added under Archbishop-Primate Rodrigo de Moura Teles. The tomb of Henry of Burgundy and Teresa of León, parents of Afonso Henriques, Portugal's first king, lies within the cathedral, tying the building directly to the founding of the Portuguese monarchy. The cathedral treasury, housed in adjoining rooms, displays liturgical vestments, gold and silver reliquaries, illuminated manuscripts, and the 11th-century ivory cross said to have belonged to Egas Moniz, presented in a mostly chronological sequence moving from the earliest medieval objects to Baroque-era ecclesiastical silver. Visitors can also view the Gothic cloister and chapels, including the Chapel of Nossa Senhora da Glória with its 14th-century royal tomb. As the historical seat of the Archdiocese of Braga, which held primacy over the Iberian Church during the medieval period, the cathedral remains an active place of worship, and restoration work through the 20th century has focused on stabilizing the granite structure and cleaning the Baroque gilt woodwork rather than altering its layered architectural history.