Buçaco Forest

Why go

The Fundação Mata do Bussaco's history page says the Bishop of Coimbra gave the forest in 1628 to the Discalced Carmelites, who built their Convent of Santa Cruz and its enclosing wall and from 1644 a Way of the Cross; the convent's life ended with the dissolution of the religious orders in 1834, the forest passed to the state forestry administration in 1856, and a neo-Manueline royal palace begun in 1888 became the Palace Hotel do Bussaco. The Centre of Portugal tourism board says the wall has eleven entrance gates and that the forest has six marked walking paths. The foundation's entries page says visits to the Convent of Santa Cruz are organised for groups of at least fifteen people on prior request, and that requests from smaller groups are accepted subject to a prior quote. This record is the forest as a whole; the Palace Hotel is a business inside it, and Coimbra is only a base for it.