Caldas da Rainha: Guided Walking Tour

We will take you to the most ancient Thermal Hospital in the world - continually operating for over five hundred years. Long before SPAs came along, Portuguese Queen D. Leonor had her own private “pool”, which you will be visiting. This came after she saw people bathing in natural hot springs looking for cures for their ailments. Impressed, the queen had a thermal hospital built on the site the very next year (1485). This tour will also take you to the nearby Church of Nossa Senhora do Pópulo (“Our Lady of the People”), a small yet artistically rich place of worship, which holds some of the earliest examples of the "Manueline Architecture”, a famously unique Portuguese architectural style. Afterward, we will take you to the beautiful and romantic D. Carlos I Park and share an overview of the city’s history highlighting its golden age in the 19th century, when it became an industrial and artistic hub and Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro and José Malhoa became household names.