Not a very big castle/residence, doesn’t take too long to visit. Decoration is sparse but in good shape. It is a little dark in some places and many of the paintings could use better lighting to stand out more.

This palace is beautiful, it looks pretty simple, but there are some incredible details like painted ceilings in some of the rooms. Beautiful. Also, the chapel inside the palace is beautiful, especially the stained glass window in it. In every room you have a list of all the exhibits in the said room in several languages, I remember there is a list in Portuguese, English, Spanish, German and French, maybe some more, but I can't remember. It is actually permitted to take pictures inside, but without the flash. I also recommend taking a combined ticket with Alberto Sampaio museum (I think it was around 5 euros). There is also a sort of break room with machines for coffee, water, juices, chips and chocolates and inside that room there are TV-s where they present some facts about palace and Portuguese history. And in the souvenir shops there are like figurines of warriors and knights representing the dukes, Afonso etc. which I find really cool. Definitely a must see in the so called Portugal's birth place.

Guimaraes is a very lovely town to stroll around with an impressive old town, also the church do Carmo with it's park so beautiful. A lot of pubs around the city makes it easy to relax in between. We visited in late morning BRAGA, the church of Sao Jesus and went later directly by car to Guimaraes, walked there for few hours and had a snack in a pub, can really recommend this place. We had been before in Lisbon, Porto, both great cities, but this is a romantic small town, in very good shape.