Beira Litoral
Coimbra has a photography market that exists nowhere else, and it has nothing to do with tourism. The university’s student traditions — the capa e batina, the faculty-coloured ribbons, the Queima das Fitas in May and the Latada at the start of the academic year — produce a whole season of sessions with their own dress code, their own locations and their own week in the calendar. Finalistas book in groups, they book late, and they all want the same two hours of light. The city itself is a hill with a university on top of it, which means the Paço das Escolas terrace looks out over everything and everything looks up at the tower. The Mondego at the bottom gives the one flat, open location, and the far bank gives the frame of the whole hill.
May is the Queima das Fitas and the city is full; the sessions that week are booked months in advance and there is no flexibility in them. The Latada, at the start of the academic year in October, is the same tradition at a quarter of the pressure and is far easier to schedule. Outside the two, Coimbra is a quiet city with good light in the late afternoon and no queue for anything.
Here is where to shoot in Coimbra, with ideal times and permit notes.
The terrace at the top of the hill, with the bell tower on one side and the whole valley on the other. This is the frame the capa e batina belongs in, and it is the reason a finalistas session is worth planning around the light rather than around lunch.
The climb from the lower town to the university, and the natural place for a group of twenty to be arranged in rows without anyone being hidden. Shaded for most of the morning, which is an advantage rather than a limitation with black capes.
From Parque Verde, the whole hill stacks up behind the river with the tower on top. It is the only place to get the city as a single image, and the light is on the front of it at the end of the day.
These come under the Coimbra rate: a photographer travels out from the city at no extra charge, and the session is priced exactly as it would be in Coimbra itself.
Around the Queima das Fitas in May and the Latada in October. The May week is the busy one and it is booked out months ahead; October is the same tradition with room to choose a time.