Grijó

How long to stay?

An afternoon is enough, and it is worth it. Grijó is the classic place to sleep before Porto: if you stay here, you have only 15.3 km left tomorrow and arrive in the big city with time to spare. The afternoon belongs to the monastery, its church and the cloister with the tomb of Rodrigo Sanches. There is hardly more to do in Grijó, and before Porto you don't need more.

Grijó in Ninja numbers

• 15.3 km from here to Porto according to Camino Ninja, 12.9 of them to Vila Nova de Gaia. A short stage, and it ends above the Douro.
• 259.2 km still lie between you and Santiago according to Camino Ninja.
• 922 is the year the monastery of São Salvador was founded, at first in a different place. It came to its present site in 1112.
• Almost 400 years, from 1626 until a few years ago, you could see only the lid and one side of the tomb of Rodrigo Sanches. Today all four are visible.

Arriving: between factories towards the monastery

From São João da Madeira it is 19.1 km according to Camino Ninja, via Arrifana, Malaposta, Lourosa and Mozelos. You are already in Greater Porto here: Grijó is a parish of Vila Nova de Gaia, and workshops and factory halls stand between the houses. All the more striking is the long monastery wall that the Way runs along. The hostel is on the Rua Cardoso Pinto, where the way to Porto also begins.

In brief: the monastery that was meant to move

São Salvador de Grijó was founded in 922 by the brothers Guterre and Ausindo Soares for a community living by the Rule of Saint Augustine. In 1527 King João III ordered a larger monastery to be built for the monks of Grijó, on the hill above the Douro opposite Porto. In 1537 they moved there, to the Serra do Pilar. At the end of the 16th century monks lived in Grijó again, and from 1572 they rebuilt church and monastery, finished only in 1629. In 1770 the monastery was dissolved, and its estates went to the new monastery of Mafra.

In the cloister: what to see

Church and cloister belong together, and according to a travel portal you can visit the monastery without a guide. We did not find opening hours. The monastery's telephone number is 227 458 104.

• Igreja de São Salvador: The church has a single nave with six side chapels and Mannerist altarpieces. The main altar shows the Transfiguration of Christ, and the main chapel is lined with gilded woodcarving and azulejos from the 18th century. The organ dates from around 1800. For you as a pilgrim it is the church of the mother house: when you see the round monastery on the Serra do Pilar above Porto tomorrow, you will know where its monks came from.
• Cloister: Two storeys around a square courtyard, Ionic columns below, Corinthian above, plus colourful azulejos with apostles and doctors of the Church. The cloister is the loveliest thing in Grijó and, after a long day between roads and halls, a place where it goes quiet.
• Tomb of Rodrigo Sanches: Rodrigo was an illegitimate son of King Sancho I and fell in 1245 in the first battle of the civil war of 1245 to 1248. His sister Constança Sanches commissioned the tomb, which was made around 1263 and 1264 in Coimbra from limestone. In 1626 it came to the cloister of Grijó and was set into a wall niche in which you could see only the lid with the reclining figure and one side. It now stands in a chapel of the cloister, and all four sides can be seen, showing among other things the Adoration of the Kings and the Crucifixion. The tomb is a national monument.

Honestly

• Grijó is a suburb, not a village. If you expect a quiet monastery village, you will find streets, workshops and traffic. The monastery is the island, not the place.
• A monastery with a question mark. We did not find opening hours. Ask at the hostel when you can get in, and plan the visit for the afternoon you arrive, not for early morning.
• The road out has no pavement. Right at the start of the stage to Porto there is no footpath. How to get around it is in the Ninja tips.
• Tomorrow it gets urban. Beyond Perosinho there is still a lovely stretch of forest, after that the national road, roundabouts and the Avenida da República decide the way to the bridge.

Where pilgrims sleep

The Albergue de peregrinos São Salvador de Grijó is run by the parish and lies right on the Way on the Rua Cardoso Pinto. It has 14 beds, a bed costs €10 according to Camino Ninja (as of November 2026), other sources give €7. It is open all year and only for pilgrims with a credencial, and as far as we know you cannot reserve. There is a small kitchen with a microwave and a fridge. In the reviews, pilgrims keep praising the warm welcome, even though the hospitalero speaks mainly Portuguese. There is no second pilgrim hostel in Grijó.

Ninja tips

• Walk through the cemetery. The way to Porto begins at the Padrão Velho on the monastery wall. Because the road after that has no pavement, pilgrims walk through the cemetery and leave it by the upper gate.
• Shop the evening before. Pilgrims mention a small shop next to the hostel. For the kitchen that is enough, for a big shop it is not.
• Save your strength for the forest. Beyond Perosinho the cobbled road turns into an old Roman way between stone walls and ferns. That is the loveliest part of the stage, and after it you see the coast of Gaia and the Atlantic from above.
• Don't set off too late. 15.3 km go quickly, and if you are in Porto early, you will find a bed there more easily and have time for the cathedral.

Onward: over the Serra to Gaia

The last stage before Porto leads via Perosinho and the forest path onto the old national road EN-1 and to Vila Nova de Gaia, 12.9 km according to Camino Ninja. From there you go along the Avenida da República to the Douro and over the upper deck of the Luís I bridge to Porto, another 2.4 km. The Caminho do Norte to Fátima uses the same route here in the opposite direction as the Camino Portugués Central.

What awaits you tomorrow

Porto. Shortly before the bridge, on the hill above the Douro, stands the round monastery of the Serra do Pilar, built for the monks of Grijó. Then you walk high above the river across, and on the other side the cathedral awaits. So tonight's monastery accompanies you all the way to the banks of Porto.

Deep dive: The king's son in the cloister

A short read, in case you want to learn more about Grijó. About two minutes' reading.

A monastery on the edge of the city

When you stand at the monastery wall in Grijó, you are standing at one of the oldest places on the whole way between Lisbon and Porto. In the year 922 two brothers, Guterre and Ausindo Soares, founded a community here living by the Rule of Saint Augustine. In the year 1112 the monastery came to its present site. It became rich and powerful. As late as the eighteenth century it owned an estate on the coast, where the beach of Granja lies today.

The move to the hill

In the sixteenth century King João the Third wanted a larger house for the monks. In the year 1537 they moved to the hill above the Douro, opposite Porto, to the Serra do Pilar. But Grijó did not stay empty. At the end of the century monks lived here again, and from 1572 they rebuilt church and cloister, as you see them today. They were finished only in 1629. In the year 1770 the monastery was dissolved.

A tomb seen only by half

In the cloister lies the tomb of Rodrigo Sanches, an illegitimate son of King Sancho the First. He fell in the year 1245, in the first battle of a civil war that split Portugal for three years. His sister Constança had a tomb of pale limestone carved for him in Coimbra almost twenty years later. In the year 1626 it was set into a niche of the cloister, and for almost four hundred years you could see only the lid and one side. Only when it moved a few years ago into a chapel of the cloister did all four sides show themselves. The researchers who have studied it since speak of interpretations rather than certainties. What exactly the images were meant to tell is still not fully understood.

What Grijó gives you

A sister set up a monument to her brother, and for centuries nobody saw it whole. Perhaps that is a thought for the last evening before Porto: some things show their other sides only when you move them from their place. Tomorrow you move on, across the Douro.