The Portuguese paving, cultural and leisure initiatives and view of the castle are only a few of the attractions that bring both the population of Leiria and visitors into this square.

Several notable monuments have been housed in the square throughout its long history, such as the Town Hall, Prison, Pillory and Notary’s “Palace”.

The building currently housing Leiria’s Athenaeum is a former seventeenth-century palace belonging to the Oriol Pena family, whose coat of arms can still be spotted on the building’s facade. However, it also functioned as the meeting place of Leiria’s assembly in the nineteenth century, of which writer Eça de Queirós was a member, this being where he would read the newspapers.

His novel “The Crime of Father Amaro”, makes several references to the square, which served as a meeting place for the notable members of the city’s population.

Nowadays, the square is named after a notable local sixteenth-century poet, Francisco Rodrigues Lobo.

In the very heart of Leiria, Rodrigues Lobo square currently functions as the city’s living room, a place for leisure and where people are happy spending time together, sat outside one of the many cafés dotted around its perimeter.

LOCATION
> Praça Rodrigues Lobo, 2400-217 Leiria
> GPS: 39.744530, -8.807905
> How To Get There: http://bit.ly/1WQstrk