Quinta das Lágrimas, for those who know the story

Every Portuguese child learns the story of Pedro and Inês. Very few of us have slept in the place where it happened. This winter is a good excuse to change that.

Quinta das Lágrimas, the five star hotel in Coimbra, has announced its Christmas and New Year programme. The news is a party. For the first time, on the night of 31 December, the celebration moves after dinner into the Ala Histórica, the historic wing of the palace, between the old salons and a balcony that looks over Coimbra just as the fireworks begin.

Christmas, the Portuguese way

The Christmas programme is built around the Consoada, our Christmas Eve dinner. This year it is a tasting menu with wine pairing chosen by the hotel's sommelier. The dish I would travel for is the confit bacalhau with a cream of "roupa velha", the dish we make from Christmas leftovers, and a vanilla pil-pil. There is oxtail with mushrooms and Alentejo pork, and a Christmas log served with ginger and rosemary ice cream.

On the 25th there is a long buffet lunch with the classics: bolo-rei, aletria, rabanadas and sonhos. The dinners and lunches are also open to guests who are not staying at the hotel.

A New Year's Eve with a view

On the 31st, the tasting dinner starts with a gratinated oyster with finger lime, then lobster with crab salad, steamed turbot with sea urchin, and veal from the Marinhoa breed. After dinner, the party opens in the Ala Histórica with a DJ, an open bar, raisins and sparkling wine at midnight, and the night ends at two in the morning.

The house and the legend

The hotel is an eighteenth century palace surrounded by twelve hectares of historic gardens, classified as a Property of Public Interest and managed by the Fundação Inês de Castro. It became a hotel in 1995. Inside are the Arcadas restaurant, recommended by the Michelin Guide and listed by La Liste among the best restaurants in the world, and the Bamboo Garden Spa. The hotel is a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World.

But the reason to go is older. The estate has documented history since 1326, which means 2026 marks seven hundred years.

In the fourteenth century, Prince Pedro fell in love with Inês de Castro, a lady of the court. His father, King Afonso IV, saw her family as a danger to the crown, and in 1355 Inês was killed in Coimbra. Legend says it happened here, by the spring in the garden.

When Pedro became king, the story goes, he had Inês crowned after her death and made the court kiss her hand. Their tombs face each other in the Monastery of Alcobaça, so that on the last day the first thing they see is each other.

Curious facts

• The Fonte das Lágrimas, the Fountain of Tears, takes its name from a verse by Luís de Camões in Os Lusíadas, where the tears of the nymphs of the Mondego become a spring.
• The stones of the spring are stained red. Legend says it is Inês's blood. Science says it is an alga, Hildenbrandia rivularis. I prefer to believe both.
• The estate has 700 years of documented history this year.
• The dinners on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve can be booked without staying the night.

How to get there

Coimbra is an easy drive from Lisbon or Porto, and an even easier train ride. Quinta das Lágrimas sits on the south bank of the Mondego, facing the old city and the university. The full Christmas and New Year programmes are on the hotel's website, quintadaslagrimas.pt.

My take

Luxury hotels in Portugal are opening faster than I can visit them, most of them in Lisbon and the Algarve, most of them beautiful and most of them new. Quinta das Lágrimas is the opposite. Its luxury is that it is not new at all.

What I like about this programme is that it does not try too hard. It takes the Consoada seriously, it keeps the bolo-rei, and then it adds one new thing: a party in rooms that have seen seven centuries. That is the right balance.

If you only go once, go for the New Year. Stand on the balcony of the Ala Histórica at midnight with Coimbra in front of you, and remember the story. For those who know it, there is no better place to begin a year.