Introduction |  |
Portugal is England’s oldest ally, and it’s in Oporto that the British left their most visible mark, in the form of the fortified wine that is Portugal’s biggest export. The port cellars are still there, across the river Douro in Vila Nova de Gaia, and offer guided tours (although many of the companies have been taken over by multinationals). The northern European work ethic rubbed off on the locals and the city has a reputation for being hard-working. It plays hard, too: Oporto nightlife is turbo-charged, and there are lively alternative music and art scenes (check out the galleries in Rua Miguel Bombarda).
The first thing that strikes you on arrival is the dramatic topography. Nestling in a deep gorge, the old town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is implausibly picturesque. To get an overview, climb the 240 steps of the Torre dos Clérigos (Rua Sâo Filipe Nery, 222 001 729, closed Fri), an 18th-century tower designed by Italian architect Nicolau Nasoni. The panorama sweeps all the way from the Romanesque cathedral, or Sé, on its bluff in the east, to the pretty but polluted beach at Foz do Douro, on the Atlantic. Below you, past a patchwork of red rooftops, is the neo-classical Palácio da Bolsa (Rua Ferreira Borges, 223 399 013, www.palaciodabolsa.pt, guided tours only). This glass-domed former stock exchange has a neo-Moorish ballroom that took 18 years to build and is gilded with 40 pounds of gold.
Currently besieged by roadworks, the fortress-like Sé commands the old town. Founded in the early 12th century, rebuilt in the 13th and again in the 18th, it is not pretty but offers fine views from the chapterhouse and courtyard. North from here, the broad Avenida dos Aliados leading up to the Câmara Municipal (town hall) is where FC Porto fans gather if (or rather when) their team wins the league. But down below the Sé is another world: narrow, steep streets known as ilhas (islands) cascade down to the waterfront Ribeira district. Westwards along the river is the Igreja de São Francisco, whose Gothic exterior belies an 18th-century interior dripping with gilt, and the poor but pretty Miragaia neighbourhood, its houses built on arches because of regular flooding.
Many visitors limit themselves to the old town but Oporto’s parks are delightful: the Palácio de Cristal (Rua Dom Manuel II), with its beautiful views; the art deco gardens of the Fundação Serralves, home to the modernist Museu de Arte Contemporânea (Rua Dom João de Castro 210, 808 200 543, www.serralves.pt, closed Mon); and the expansive Parque da Cidade, on the way to Foz.
• Tourist information: 25 Rua Clube dos Fenianos (223 393 470, www.portoturismo.pt).
|
|
