The Old Cathedral of Coimbra is one of the most important Romanesque-style buildings in the country. Its construction began sometime after the Battle of Ourique (1139), when Afonso Henriques declared himself king of Portugal and chose Coimbra as the capital of the kingdom.
The Old Cathedral of Coimbra is the only one of the Portuguese Romanesque cathedrals from the time of the Reconquista to have survived relatively intact to the present day. The Old Cathedral is an exponent of the Afonsine phase of Coimbra Romanesque.
