Figueira da Foz

Figueira da Foz stands at the mouth of the Mondego, where the river reaches the Atlantic west of Coimbra. Hills of the Serra da Boa Viagem shelter the coast nearby. The earliest known document concerning the settlement dates from 1096, when an abbot donated lands belonging to the church of São Julião to Coimbra's cathedral. The harbor grew substantially in the eighteenth century, alongside shipbuilding and the drying of cod. Figueira received the status of a town in 1771.