Gaita-de-fole Coimbrã

The Gaita-de-fole de Coimbra is a type of old Iberian bagpipe.

The most important traditional music instruments in the Beira Litoral Province are

• Machinho de Coimbra - a kind of cavaquinho
• Viola Toeira - a traditional guitar
• Gaita-de-fole de Coimbra - a kind of old Iberian bagpipe

The Coimbra's Bagpipe is a kind of Bagpipe that's belong to the Iberian gaita-family. Unlike a Galician bagpipe, the chanter is thinner and snaller and presents an old "out-of-tune" scale, the drone is larger, heavy, but showing a fine torneamento job, the old blow mechanism is kind of primitive and very hard to handle, the goat skin is used as a different way from the North of Portugal and Galicia: the chanter goes to the "left" leg, the drone to the "right" leg and the blow tube on the neck.

University of Coimbra

Bagpipes and Charamelas were played until late XIX century at the University of Coimbra

It's an old tradition that bagpipers from the small villages near Coimbra come twice a year to Coimbra. Invited by University Students they come to celebrate the Queima das Fitas and the Cortejo das Latas e Imposição de Insígnias.

Tradition surrounding Coimbra

Traditional bagpipers never disappeared from the small villages near Coimbra. They still play in religious ceremonies and festivals as did their ancestors. Old profan culture, as Procissões, are precided by the traditional Gaiteiro, a musical group concerning of one bagpiper and two drummers (caixa and Bombo).