Showing 1-14 of 14 results
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Avenida dos Aliados
With bulging, Beaux Arts facades and capped by the Câmara Municipal (City Hall), the short but grand Avenida dos Aliados may not be exactly Parisian, but it certainly recalls grand Parisian imitators like Buenos Aires and Budapest. Its central plaza has been recently repaved and spiffed up, and if it weren't for all the buses (this is the city's transport hub) and it would be a fine place to linger.
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Capela das Almas
On the pedestrianised Rua Santa Catarina you won't be able to miss the small but extraordinary facade of the Capela das Almas, which is smothered in lustrously blue azulejos . Though painted in classic 18th-century style, they actually date to the early 20th century.
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Casa da Música
The vast roundabout at Praça de Mousinho de Albuquerque roughly marks the boundary between 'old' and 'new' Porto. Here you'll find Casa da Música, Porto's extraordinary new concert hall. Called 'insane' yet 'brilliant' by the Times and 'ruthlessly inventive' by the Guardian, Casa da Música finally opened its doors in 2005 - four years late but every bit worth the wait.
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Hilltop Cathedral
From the Praça da Ribeira rise a tangle of medieval alleys and stairways that eventually reach the hulking fortress of a hilltop cathedral. Founded in the 12th century, the cathedral was largely rebuilt a century later and then extensively altered in the 18th century. However, you can still make out the church's Romanesque contours.
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Igreja de Santa Clara
The Igreja de Santa Clara was part of another Franciscan convent. Gothic in shape, with a fine Renaissance portal, its interior is also dense with elaborately gilded woodwork.
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Igreja de São Francisco
Sitting on the Praça Infante Dom Henrique, Igreja de São Francisco looks from the outside to be an austerely Gothic church, but inside hides one of Portugal's most dazzling displays of baroque finery. Hardly an inch escapes unsmothered, as unworldly cherubs and sober monks alike are drowned by nearly 100kg of gold leaf. The church has been deconsecrated, ministering only to tourists greedy to see all that gold.
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Igreja do Carmo
The Igreja do Carmo is one of Porto's best examples of Rococo architecture; enter via the main door on Rua do Carmo. It has a remarkable, azulejo -laden facade, including Silvestre Silvestri's exquisite panel illustrating the legend of the founding of the Carmelite order.
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Igreja dos Clérigos
Italian-born baroque master Nicolau Nasoni designed the Igreja dos Clérigos, with its theatrical facade and unusual, oval-shaped nave.
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Palácio da Bolsa
The Palácio da Bolsa is a splendid neoclassical monument - built from 1842 to 1910 - to honour Porto's past-and-present money merchants. Just past the entrance hall is the glass-domed Pátio das Nações, where the stock exchange once operated. But this pales in comparison with rooms deeper inside, and to visit these you must join one of the guided tours that set off every 30 minutes, and last for 30 minutes.
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Ponte de Dom Luís I
Completed in 1886 by a student of Gustave Eiffel, the double-decker bridge's top deck is now reserved for pedestrians as well as one of the city's metro lines; the lower deck bears regular traffic. Both afford wonderful views.
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Praça da Batalha
At its southern end, Rua Santa Catarina opens out onto the lovely, eclectic Praça da Batalha. It's anchored at one end by the Igreja de Santo Ildefonso and at the other by the lavishly romantic Teatro Nacional São João.
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Praça da Ribeira
Down by the river, narrow streets open out onto Praça da Ribeira, which - with its river views and austerely grand, tiled townhouses - is shorthand for Porto itself. From here you have fine views of both the port-wine lodges across the river as well as the monumental, double-decker Ponte de Dom Luís I.
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Torre dos Clérigos
Just uphill from Aliados, you can get your bearings and bird's-eye photographs from the vertigo-inducing Torre dos Clérigos. Italian-born baroque master Nicolau Nasoni designed the 76m-high tower in the mid-18th century. To reach the top, you must scale its 225-step spiral staircase.
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Vila Nova de Gaia
While technically its own municipality, Vila Nova de Gaia ('Gaia') sits just across the Douro from Porto and is woven into the city's fabric both by a series of stunning bridges as well as its shared history of port-wine making. Since the mid-18th century, port-wine bottlers and exporters have been obliged to maintain their 'lodges' - basically dressed-up warehouses - here.
Showing 1-14 of 14 results
