Every summer, hundreds of brightly coloured umbrellas are strung above the streets of Águeda, a small city in central Portugal. The Umbrella Sky Project turns ordinary shopping lanes into tunnels of red, yellow, blue and pink, and the shadows they throw on the pavement are as much a part of the show as the canopy itself.
The Umbrella Sky Project in Águeda
The umbrellas first went up in the summer of 2012. The idea grew out of AgitÁgueda, the city's summer arts festival, which has run since 2006 and mixes concerts, street performance and public art. The installation was produced by the local art company Impactplan, with support from the municipality, and its playful look borrows from the flying umbrella of the 1964 film Mary Poppins.
Photos of the canopy spread quickly online, and the project became Águeda's postcard image. Architectural Digest has listed it among the most beautiful street installations in the world. Impactplan has since taken the concept to dozens of cities in Europe, the Americas and Asia, along with sister projects such as Color Rain and Bubble Sky.
When to see the umbrellas
- Summer season: the colourful umbrellas hang in Águeda each year from 1 July to 30 September.
- Christmas version: a white, illuminated umbrella canopy appears from 1 December to 15 January.
- Where: the best-known stretch is Rua Luís de Camões, and several central streets around it are decorated too, together with murals and other colourful street art.
The colours and patterns change from year to year, so each summer's canopy looks a little different from the photos you may have seen. Bright midday sun gives the strongest coloured shadows on the paving; early morning is the quietest time for photographs.
About Águeda and getting there
Águeda lies in the district of Aveiro, in Portugal's Centro region, on the river of the same name. The municipality has around 46,000 inhabitants and covers 335 km². The area has been settled since at least the 4th century BC, when Celtic, Turduli and Lusitanian peoples lived here; Águeda became a municipality in 1853 and was raised to city status in 1985.
The city is about 20 km from Aveiro, 72 km from Porto and 240 km from Lisbon. By car, the A25 and the EN1/IC2 serve the area, and the drive from Aveiro takes around half an hour. The narrow-gauge Vouga line runs commuter trains between Aveiro and Sernada do Vouga with stops in the region.
More to do around Águeda
Make a day of it. Just west of the city lies the Pateira de Fermentelos, often described as the largest natural lagoon on the Iberian Peninsula, with birdlife, reed beds and waterside paths. Riverside parks and walking trails cross the wider municipality, and Aveiro, with its canals and colourful moliceiro boats, is close enough for the same day.
Bring water and a hat in July and August: inland central Portugal gets hot, and the umbrellas give colour more than shade.
If public art is what drew you here, the see-through church in Belgium plays with light and space in another striking way. For a completely different side of Portugal, see our Azores guide.
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