Once again, Viseu is crowned best city to live in Portugal in a survey carried by Deco Proteste, a magazine published by the Portuguese association for consumer protection.

Over 3,000 people in 21 different cities were polled about what Portuguese city is best to live in and Viseu came top of the list, as it did in the last Deco Proteste survey of 2007. Respondents defined quality of life according to the employment opportunities, safety and health facilities available in each city while aesthetics and historical heritage took a back seat. Viseu scored highest while capital city Lisbon ranked second to last.

Located 299 km north of Lisbon and 127km south of Portugal’s second biggest city Porto, Viseu is an hour away from Aveiro and university city Coimbra.

Viseu scored highest in most criteria: safe city with good health facilities, excellent public transportation and vehicle mobility – the latter being one of Lisbon’s most negative features. In addition, Viseu also boasts easy access to education and culture while its real estate prices are still relatively low and it offers plenty of nice neighbourhoods to live in.

At the heart of the Dão wine-growing region, Viseu is a city bursting with history and culture. Merging the old with the new, it features a historic city centre, medieval streets and paintings by 16^th century artist Grão Vasco as well as a modern shopping mall, the first ice bar in the Iberian Peninsula and the nearby fairy-tale medieval village of Marialva.

By featuring the best of both worlds, the area caters to modernists and traditionalists alike, making Viseu an interesting and dynamic city to live in.

(Photograph: Flickr)