Largo do Paço in Braga on a Bracara Romana Morning
2024-05-26
Another view of Braga, during another Bracara Romana. This time we came to actually sleep at the festival, since a lot of the shows we wanted to catch happen late at night. We decided to rent a place and stay for the whole night. It turned out to be such a good call.
We really made the most of the festival, the fire shows, and managed to stay out at the bars until pretty late. The next morning, right after waking up, I opened the balcony and there it was, Largo do Paço, right in front of our room. It was great, watching the Romans parade by from the balcony, honestly one of the best mornings.
Largo do Paço
Largo do Paço sits surrounded by the buildings of the old Paço Episcopal Bracarense, which is actually where the square gets its name from. At its center stands the Chafariz dos Castelos, a fountain built back in 1723. These days, part of those buildings houses the rectory of the University of Minho, but that morning, with the light pouring in through the balcony, you could feel all that history in the air, even without knowing any of those details yet.
I still managed to make this illustration of our view that morning, the Paço bathed in sunlight, the light coming through the balcony and catching all the little details in the ornamentation. We had plenty of time, which made it easy to finish the drawing properly. I used fineliner pens and a brush pen, and, of course, filled it in with watercolor. I have a real soft spot for open doors like that one, with the day just pouring in through them.