Jardim de Santa Barbara – The Year in Pictures

This is the first post of a series of 12, where I show the changing look of the Jardim de Santa Barbara over a year.

When we were researching Braga as a place to live, we noticed this image that kept appearing in all the reports and promotional materials. It was a picture of the Jardim de Santa Barbara, a garden in the middle of the historical center.

It is one of my absolute favorite places. When I saw it in January 2025, looking much less floral than this, I said “We need to live near here.” And now we do.

Whenever we’re in places like Lisbon and the Algarve, and we tell people where we live, they often reply “Oh, Braga, it’s so cold there!” Cold is relative when you grew up in one of Canada’s more northerly cities. Cold is highly relative when you know what -40 feels like, and now you have flowers pretty much year-round.

I want to capture how the various Braga gardens change here during the year. I’m starting with my favorite, the Jardim de Santa Barbara. Look for a new picture at the start of every month.