Portugal announces New Seven Wonders winners across seven heritage categories

Public vote chooses seven national heritage monuments

The final results of the New 7 Wonders of Portugal election were announced on Saturday night during a televised gala at the National Palace of Sintra, also known as the Palácio da Vila. A nationwide public vote determined the seven winning monuments, selecting one site from each of the seven competition categories. Leiria Castle claimed first place in the Castles category, and the Lisbon Cathedral was chosen as the winner in the Religion category. The Roman ruins of São Cucufate in Vila de Frades, Vidigueira, won the History category, while the Usseira Aqueduct in Óbidos secured the Great Works category. The Olhão Municipal Markets finished first in twentieth-century architecture, the Tiago Cabaço Winery in Estremoz won in twenty-first-century architecture, and the Episcopal Palace Garden in Castelo Branco topped the Tourism category. Two of the winning sites, Leiria Castle and the Episcopal Palace Garden, are located within the Centro region of Portugal.

Multi-stage selection from nationwide candidacies

The 2026 competition evaluated built heritage across Portugal, spanning historical architecture and contemporary engineering projects from mainland districts as well as the autonomous regions. The selection process began with 629 candidacies submitted from municipalities throughout the country. An evaluation panel filtered this initial pool to 147 shortlisted candidate sites across the designated categories. Subsequent voting stages narrowed the field to 21 national finalists, placing three competing sites into each of the seven category shortlists. The general public then cast ballots during the final phase to choose the single winning monument in each category.

Category winners and regional representation

The seven categories covered diverse periods of construction and architecture, extending from ancient classical ruins to modern working facilities. In Vidigueira, the Roman ruins of São Cucufate represented ancient history, while the Usseira Aqueduct in Óbidos represented large-scale civil engineering. The Olhão Municipal Markets represented twentieth-century regional design, and the Tiago Cabaço Winery, a wine cellar and production facility in Estremoz, won the twenty-first-century architecture category. In the Tourism category, the baroque Episcopal Palace Garden of Castelo Branco, known for its tiered levels, staircases, fountains, geometric hedges, and decorative statues, won following local mobilization in the Beira Baixa region. The garden prevailed over two other regional tourism finalists: the Monte Palace Madeira Garden in Funchal and the Cella Bar in Madalena do Pico in the Azores.

Return of the contest after nineteen years

The 2026 edition marked the return of the Seven Wonders contest almost twenty years after Portugal conducted its first national heritage election on 7 July 2007. The updated competition structure incorporated new categories to evaluate twentieth- and twenty-first-century architecture alongside classical historical assets, castles, and religious structures. Organizers designed the initiative to increase public engagement with built monuments and strengthen regional identity across mainland Portugal and its Atlantic archipelagos. The announcement in Sintra concluded several months of voting, establishing a revised roster of national cultural sites selected directly by the public.