Leiria

Situated in the Central Region of Portugal, Leiria is the District’s capital.

The County is 568km2 and 126.897 inhabitants; while the city itself is home to 42.785 residents.

Leiria is in a privileged geographical position, near the coastline, and at the axis of the main transport links between the country’s two major cities, Oporto and Lisbon.

Leiria is a city where the Future is built. In the thirteenth century, the troubadour king, D. Dinis, composed here the “cantigas de amigo” that embody the Portuguese-Galician songbook. From this castle, he looked at the vastness spreading until the sea and ordered the Pinhal de Leiria to be planted. Two centuries later it’s wood would be used for the caravels that sailed the globe. Music and this visionary capacity are part of the DNA of the leirienses. With a strong industry and great quality of life, there is a predisposition to make and consume culture.

Musically, Leiria appears in the national and international panorama at the forefront of social and artistic projects that work on social equity, human dignity and inclusion. Here, musicians, dancers, writers and artists of international renown have grown; here, the most emblematic projects in the relationship between Music and human dignity began: OPERA IN PRISON, HERE WITH YOU or CONCERTS FOR BABIES, already replicated all over the world. With an enviable natural  and architectonic heritage, the city has been able to reinvent itself to create a true public space where culture is lived daily through events such as THE DOOR, ENTREMURALHAS, MUSIC IN LEIRIA or by pop and rock bands, centennial wind bands, choirs and  folklore groups.

The squares, the gardens, the River Lis, the streets and the halls are lively and dynamic places, meeting places where culture is lived daily. Annually, the City offers itself in the form of Music.