Parque Verde de Alcobaça

The Parque Verde de Alcobaça is a riverside park at the eastern entrance to Alcobaça, the Silver Coast town famous for its huge Cistercian monastery. Alcobaça council opened it on 21 March 2019, with the aim, in its own words, of giving the river back to the town. The park wraps around the River Alcoa and covers about 61,000 m², a little over six hectares.

The council’s page, updated in November 2025, lists what’s there: a children’s playground, a skatepark, a fitness trail (circuito de manutenção), greenhouses, a food area, an amphitheatre and, running through it all, part of the water system the monks built to supply their abbey.

The playground and skatepark are the park’s main draws for children. Our sources don’t list the playground equipment, so check what’s there for your child’s age when you arrive.

The skatepark is a free concrete park. Skatedex, a skatepark directory, lists:

• A bowl for riding round and up the walls.
• Quarter pipes, curved ramps to ride up and back down.
• Street elements, including a flat bar (a low metal rail) and a ledge.

That mix gives a beginner some gentle ramps to learn on and a confident skater a bowl to carve. As with any skatepark, keep small children at the edge when older riders are going fast.

This is the part that makes Parque Verde different from any other town park. The monastery of Alcobaça, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1989, was built where the rivers Alcoa and Baça meet, and the monks needed water for everything. The council’s page explains the two systems they built, both of which pass through the park.

• The drinking-water conduit carried clean underground water from Chiqueda to the abbey for drinking, washing and religious rites. It is 3.28 km long and drops on average just 1.6 mm per metre, so the water flowed all the way by gravity, sometimes underground, sometimes on the surface and sometimes raised on arches. In the park, the aqueduct runs at ground level or above it.
• The levada was a channel taken off the River Alcoa for jobs that needed a strong current: watering the fields, turning mill wheels and flushing the monks’ latrines. Overflow spillways sent floodwater back to the river.

For a child, it’s a real-life lesson in engineering: how do you move water three kilometres with no pumps? The monks stayed in Alcobaça for eight centuries, from 1153, when King Afonso Henriques gave the Cistercian order a vast territory, until the abbey was closed in 1834.

The council describes the park as a space for all generations, built for informal sport, outdoor activities and events. Its children’s and environment festival, the Festa da Criança e do Ambiente, had been held in the Parque Verde in earlier years; in 2025 it moved to the Panorama multi-purpose hall, according to Região de Cister.

• Toddlers: the playground and space to toddle by the river.
• Little kids (4 to 7): the playground, and a first go on the gentler skatepark ramps.
• Big kids (8 to 12): the skatepark, the fitness trail and the aqueduct story.
• Teens: the bowl and street obstacles.

• Bring helmets and pads if anyone is skating.
• The council lists a food area in the park; we couldn’t confirm opening times, so bring water and snacks.
• None of our sources mention toilets, shade over the playground or fencing. Check when you arrive.

Alcobaça is a short drive from the calm, shallow bay at São Martinho do Porto, which is in the same municipality, and from Nazaré beach. In Nazaré, the Forte de São Miguel Arcanjo is where people watch the giant winter waves. Further south, the walled town of Óbidos makes another easy family stop.

Is Parque Verde de Alcobaça free?

Yes. It’s a public municipal park.

Is there a skatepark in Alcobaça?

Yes, in the Parque Verde. It’s a free concrete park with a bowl, quarter pipes, a flat bar and a ledge, according to Skatedex.

Is there a playground at Parque Verde?

Yes. The council lists a children’s playground among the park’s facilities.

What is the old aqueduct in the park?

It’s part of the conduit the Cistercian monks built to carry drinking water 3.28 km from Chiqueda to the monastery by gravity alone. It runs through the park at ground level or raised above it.