Description Caldas da Rainha

Caldas da Rainha DmTE is a Portuguese city in the district of Leiria, located in the province of Estremadura with around 31 000 inhabitants in its urban perimeter (2012) and integrating the Intermunicipal Community of the West in the Centro region.

It is the seat of a municipality with 255.69 km² of area and 51 729 inhabitants (2011), subdivided into 12 parishes. The municipality is limited to the northeast by the municipality of Alcobaça, to the east by Rio Maior, to the south by Cadaval, to the west by Bombarral and Óbidos and to the northwest by the Atlantic Ocean.

Hospitality, Health, Tradition, Creativity

We have to offer you a wide range of tourist attractions. The city of Caldas da Rainha is a hidden treasure where you will feel like taking refuge. Discover its charms!

As Ramalho Ortigão wrote: “Caldas da Rainha is the center of the most historic, most picturesque region in the whole country.”

Founded by Queen Dona Leonor in 1495, the city developed around the Thermal Hospital, which, after five centuries of existence, continues to receive hundreds of visitors every year who seek treatment and rest in these spas.

Pottery is a strong artistic presence that still shapes the image of Caldas today. The ceramic tradition of this city is lost in time. Figures such as Maria dos Cacos, Manuel Cipriano Gomes (the “Mafra”), Francisco Elias and Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro, gave the ceramics of Caldas the characteristics that celebrate it.

Other arts, such as painting and sculpture, have confirmed Caldas da Rainha as a center for fine arts, with Master José Malhoa standing out in painting and, in sculpture, Mestre António Duarte and João Fragoso, born in Caldas da Queen. To visit its Museums is to visit authentic living cultural spaces.

Caldas da Rainha has, on its seafront, the beaches of Salir do Porto and Foz do Arelho. The latter, privileged by its nature which, emerging between the Óbidos Lagoon and the Sea, becomes the ideal place for water sports and fishing.

In contrast to the coast, there are rural landscapes, full of history and rich in trees, where a prosperous agriculture in fruits and vegetables supplies the traditional fruit market daily.

Its hardworking and hospitable people, living essentially from agriculture, the ceramic industries and commerce, offer those who visit it the warmth of its welcome and its five centuries of history, full of nobles and great events.