How to get to Penafiel Portugal by train
Nestled among the granite hills and vinho verde vineyards of northern Portugal’s Norte Region is Penafiel, a mid-sized town with a big helping of history and culture. Here it is possible to walk the streets of a pre-Roman city or follow the Romanesque trail and visit churches that were built before Portugal existed as a nation. And the scenery is utterly bewitching, with forest and farmland draped across every hillside.
Rising east of the centre of Penafiel is Saint Bartholomew’s Hill, topped with a 19th-century sanctuary that might remind you of Paris’s Sacre Coeur. Its large white dome is surrounded by a park with coniferous woodland and charming formal gardens, stepping up to a platform where you can admire Penafiel’s outlying villages against the massif of tall softwood hills.
In this genteel park, you can see echoes of how Penafiel’s higher classes used to relax at the turn of the 20th century – wrought iron gazebos and tall century-old trees. The church has a similarly imposing presence, dominated by a large rotunda with a Baroque and Neoclassical façade. Inside, the 17th-century Misericordia Church has annexes that have been converted into sacred art galleries.
The train ride from Porto to Penafiel takes on average around 43 minutes. Check the train schedule on Omio for more information, as the journey time can change depending on your travel dates and whether you’re traveling during a holiday or weekend.
