Portuguese students in traditional clothing

One of the things we learned in Portugal was that students and academia, in general, are maintaining some old traditions. It is not unusual to see Brit students wearing some unique clothing. At some universities in Eastern Europe professors still wear robes on special occasions, a custom you barely notice, for example, in Germany.

During our stay in Portugal, we saw students in Lisbon wearing black and white clothing. You could distinguish them easily from others. The same was the case in Coimbra, the location of one of the oldest European universities (see map). We saw students wearing not merely black and white unique suites, but also robes (a bit Hogwarts like). Probably this is not daily, but only on special occasions. The guide told us, however, even stories of special rules in students’ household communities, which are still maintained by the students’ community.