Chaves

Steam rises from the thermal springs in the centre of Chaves, Portugal, curling past the Roman bridge that has spanned the Tâmega river since Emperor Trajan ordered its construction. The water surfaces at 73°C, carrying the same minerals that drew Roman legionaries here to heal their wounds. On the far bank, the old town stacks up in layers of granite and colour.

Chaves is one of Portugal's oldest continuously inhabited spa towns, its thermal waters documented since the Roman occupation of Aquae Flaviae in the 1st century AD. Trajan's bridge, completed around 104 AD, still carries pedestrians across the Tâmega — its original Roman milestones remain at each end. The 14th-century castle keep now houses a military museum, while surrounding streets reveal layers of Romanesque, Gothic, and Baroque architecture. Chaves sits in the upper Tâmega valley near the Spanish border, its fertile basin producing smoked presunto that rivals anything from across the frontier. The modern thermal spa complex channels the same geothermal source the Romans used, offering treatments in mineral-rich water that has been in continuous therapeutic use for nearly two thousand years.