Portugal Trivia
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50 free Portugal trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
41 free Portugal trivia questions with answers. Portugal trivia for travellers, expats, geography buffs and quiz hosts. The 50 questions start easy, with the capital, the neighbour, the islands and Ronaldo's birthplace, then dig into what makes the country distinctive: the westernmost point of Europe, the earthquake that flattened Lisbon on All Saints' Day, the revolution won with carnations, and the alliance with England that has held since 1386. There is a full round on the Age of Discovery (Henry the Navigator, Dias, da Gama, Magellan, the empire that lasted until 1999), plus food and drink (bacalhau, pastel de nata, piri piri, how port is made), fado, azulejos, the Rooster of Barcelos, Fátima, Sintra and Euro 2016. Every answer has been checked against a reference source, shown under each question once you answer, so it holds up in a classroom or a pub quiz.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Portugal shares its only land border with which country?
Spain
Spain is Portugal's only neighbour, sharing a roughly 1,200-kilometre border that has barely changed since a treaty of 1297, making it one of Europe's oldest frontiers.
Q 02Besides the Azores, which autonomous Atlantic archipelago lies about 805 km southwest of mainland Portugal?
Madeira
Madeira, an autonomous region of Portugal sitting on the African tectonic plate, lies about 805 km southwest of the mainland; its capital Funchal holds around two-fifths of the archipelago's population.
Q 03Where is Mount Pico, Portugal's highest point at 2,351 metres?
The Azores
The Azores hold Mount Pico, a dormant volcano rising 2,351 metres on Pico Island, more than twice the height of any other peak in the archipelago.
Q 04Cabo da Roca, near Sintra, holds what geographical distinction?
Westernmost point of mainland Europe
Cabo da Roca is the westernmost point of mainland Europe, a granite headland some 140 metres high at the edge of the Sintra hills, whose lighthouse has operated since 1772.
Q 05Lisbon is usually ranked as the second-oldest capital city in Europe, after which city?
Athens
Athens is usually placed first and Lisbon second among Europe's oldest capitals; Lisbon was already the Roman municipium Felicitas Julia Olisipo under Julius Caesar, centuries before most European capitals existed.
Q 06The 1755 earthquake that destroyed Lisbon struck on the morning of which religious feast?
All Saints' Day
The quake struck on 1 November 1755, All Saints' Day, while churches were full; shaking lasted up to six minutes and about 40 minutes later a tsunami swept over survivors who had fled to the docks.
Q 07Portugal's overthrow of the Estado Novo dictatorship on 25 April 1974 is known by what name?
The Carnation Revolution
The Carnation Revolution took its name from the red carnations that restaurant worker Celeste Caeiro handed to soldiers on 25 April 1974, which they stuck in their gun barrels; the coup cost just four lives.
Q 08Portugal's monarchy was replaced by a republic in which year?
1910
The republic was proclaimed in Lisbon on 5 October 1910 after a two-day revolt that sent the last king, then aged 20, into exile in England.
Q 09Portugal joined the European Economic Community, forerunner of the EU, in which year?
1986
Portugal joined the European Economic Community on 1 January 1986 alongside its Iberian neighbour, having already been a founding member of NATO in 1949 and of EFTA in 1960.
Q 10The 1386 pact sealing the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, the world's oldest still in force, was signed where?
Windsor
The Treaty of Windsor was signed at Windsor on 9 May 1386 by Richard II of England and John I of Portugal, cementing an alliance that Britain invoked as late as the Second World War.
Q 11The Portuguese Empire ended when which territory was handed over in 1999?
Macau
Macau, settled by the Portuguese in the 1550s, was handed to China on 20 December 1999, closing an empire that had begun with the capture of Ceuta in 1415.
Q 12Which Portuguese prince, born in 1394, is credited as a main initiator of the Age of Discovery?
Henry the Navigator
Henry the Navigator, a son of John I, fought in the 1415 capture of Ceuta and then sponsored decades of caravel voyages that charted Africa's Atlantic coast past Cape Bojador, first rounded in 1434.
Q 13Which Portuguese navigator became the first European to round the southern tip of Africa, in 1488?
Bartolomeu Dias
Q 21Portuguese lore says there are how many ways to cook bacalhau, the salt-cod staple?
365
Tradition holds there are 365 bacalhau recipes, one for every day of the year; salt cod has been a Portuguese staple since its fleets began fishing the Newfoundland banks in the 16th century.
Q 22Port wine is fortified by adding a neutral grape spirit at what point in the process?
Partway through fermentation
Port is made by adding grape spirit partway through fermentation, which kills the yeast while grape sugar remains, leaving the wine sweet at roughly 19-22% alcohol.
Q 23Which 1703 agreement let English merchants import port at low duty?
The Methuen Treaty
Bartolomeu Dias rounded the southern tip of Africa in 1488 after a storm drove his two caravels out to sea; he named it the Cape of Storms, later renamed the Cape of Good Hope.
Q 14In which year did a Portuguese fleet reach Kozhikode, completing the first sea route from Europe to India?
1498
The fleet anchored off Kozhikode, then called Calicut, on 20 May 1498, and its cargo of pepper and cinnamon shifted Portugal's economy from African gold to the Asian spice trade.
Q 15Which Portuguese king refused to back Magellan's westward voyage to the Spice Islands?
Manuel I
Manuel I turned Magellan down, so the navigator took his plan to the young Habsburg king Charles, later Emperor Charles V, who approved it; five ships left Seville in August 1519 under the Castilian crown.
Q 16In which year did Portugal claim its first Age of Discovery find, an uninhabited Atlantic island group?
1419
The island group was claimed in 1419, the year after two captains driven off course by a storm had sighted neighbouring Porto Santo, 'holy harbour'; settlement began in the 1420s.
Q 17Portugal produces roughly what share of the world's cork harvest?
About half
Portugal grows about half of the world's cork harvest, mostly in the Alentejo's cork-oak montado; the bark regrows and is stripped from each tree again only after about a decade.
Q 18Which is the only country in Asia with Portuguese as an official language?
East Timor
East Timor, a Portuguese colony until 1975 and independent from Indonesia since 2002, is the only country in Asia with Portuguese as an official language, alongside Tetum.
Q 19In which year was fado added to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list?
2011
Fado was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2011; the name comes from the Latin fatum, 'fate', and the songs voice saudade.
Q 20Which egg-custard tart, devised by Lisbon monks, is Portugal's best-known pastry?
Pastel de nata
Pastel de nata was devised by monks who used egg whites to starch habits and had yolks to spare; the recipe was sold to a sugar refinery whose owners opened a bakery in 1837.
The Methuen Treaty of December 1703 admitted Portuguese wines to England at a third less duty than French wines in exchange for English woollen cloth, boosting the port trade during the War of the Spanish Succession.
Q 24Which chilli pepper, developed by Portuguese explorers in southern Africa, is named from the Swahili for 'pepper'?
Piri piri
Piri piri, from the Swahili for 'pepper', is a small bird's-eye chilli that Portuguese settlers grew in Mozambique and Angola from plants carried over from the Americas.
Q 25Portugal won its first major football trophy at Euro 2016 by beating which host nation in the final?
France
Portugal beat hosts France 1-0 after extra time at the Stade de France on 10 July 2016, Éder scoring in the 109th minute while the injured Cristiano Ronaldo urged his team on from the touchline.
Q 26Which Ballon d'Or winner led Portugal to third place at the 1966 World Cup?
Eusébio
Eusébio, the 1965 Ballon d'Or winner, top-scored with 9 goals at the 1966 World Cup in England, including four against North Korea, as Portugal finished third on its debut at the finals.
Q 27Which Portuguese writer won the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature?
José Saramago
José Saramago, author of Blindness and Baltasar and Blimunda, won the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature; the citation praised 'parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony'.
Q 28Coimbra was the capital of Portugal during which period?
1131-1255
Coimbra served as the capital in 1131-1255, until Afonso III moved the court to Lisbon; the cryptoporticus of Roman Aeminium survives beneath the city's Machado de Castro museum.
Q 29The Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon exemplifies which ornate style named after a Portuguese king?
Manueline
Manueline, named for the king who reigned from 1495 to 1521, mixes late Gothic with carved ropes, armillary spheres and other maritime motifs, as on the Jerónimos Monastery's cloister.
Q 30Whose remains were moved in 1880 to the Jerónimos church, alongside those of a celebrated poet?
Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama's remains were reinterred at the Jerónimos Monastery in 1880; the monastery rose near the spot from which his fleet sailed for India and was funded by a levy on the spice trade's profits.