Porto ( ), also known as
Oporto in English, is Portugal
's second city and the capital of
Norte region. It is, along with
Lisbon
, one of Portugal's two global cities. The city is located in
the estuary of the Douro
river
in northern Portugal. Being the largest city
in the region, it is considered the economic and cultural heart of
the entire region. With an estimated population of about 220,000
(est.2008), it lies at the centre of the political
Greater Metropolitan
Area of Porto, with a population of slightly more than 1.7
million
(est. 2008), and is the main
agglomeration of northern Portugal.
The city of Porto comprises 15 civil parishes.
The historic centre of
Porto was declared a World Heritage
Site by UNESCO
in
1996. One of Portugal's most internationally famous
products,
Port wine, is named after the
city because it is produced in, and shipped from the area or, more
precisely, from
Vila Nova de Gaia,
a city just across the river which belongs to the same conurbation.
The country was also named after the Latin name of Porto,
Portus Cale.
History
Early history
Historic references to the city go back to the
4th century and to
Roman times, although
Celt
and
Proto-Celtic remnants of ancient
Citadels were found in the heart of where
Porto now lies.
In the Roman period the city developed its
importance as a commercial port, primarily in the trade between
Olissipona (Lisbon) and Bracara Augusta (nowadays Braga), but would
fall under the Moorish Muslim invasion of the Iberian
Peninsula
in
711. In 868, Vímara
Peres, a Christian warlord from Gallaecia and
a vassal of the King of Asturias, Léon and Galicia, Alfonso III, was sent to reconquer and secure from the Moors the area
from the Minho River to the Douro River, including the city of Portus Cale, later Porto and Gaia, from where the name and political
entity of Portugal emerged (see
Portucale). In 868 Count Vímara Peres established the First County of Portugal ( ), after the
reconquest of the region north of the Douro
river.
In 1387,
this city was the scene for the marriage of João I and Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of
John of Gaunt,
symbolizing the long-standing military alliance between Portugal and
England, the world's oldest
military alliance, which still holds via NATO
.
In the
14th and the 15th centuries, the shipyards of Porto contributed to
the development of the Portuguese fleet. In 1415, Henry the Navigator, son of João I, left from Porto to conquest the
Muslim port of Ceuta
in northern
Morocco
. This
expedition led to the exploratory voyages that he later sent down
the coast of
Africa. Portuenses are referred
to this day as "tripeiros", in reference to the fact that higher
quality meat would be loaded onto ships to feed sailors, while
off-cuts and by-products such as
tripe would
be left behind and eaten by the citizens of Porto. Tripe remains a
culturally important dish in modern day Porto.
18th century
Avenida dos Aliados
Sculpture of Ângelo de Sousa at
Avenida da Boavista, a services avenue
View from the Clerics Tower
Wine, produced in the Douro valley, was already
in the 13th century transported to Porto in
barcos rabelos
(flat sailing vessels). In 1703 the
Methuen Treaty established the trade
relations between Portugal and England. In 1717, a first English
trading post was established in Porto. The production of
port wine then gradually passed into the hands of
a few English firms. To counter this English dominance, Prime
Minister
Marquis
of Pombal established a Portuguese firm receiving the monopoly
of the wines from the Douro valley. He demarcated the region for
production of port, to ensure the wine's quality; this was the
first attempt to control wine quality and production in
Europe. The small winegrowers revolted against his
strict policies on
Shrove Tuesday,
burning down the buildings of this firm. The revolt was called
Revolta dos Borrachos (revolt of the drunks) and became a
symbol of the freedom spirit of the inhabitants of Porto.
Between
1732 and 1763, Italian
architect
Nicolau Nasoni designed a baroque church with a tower that would
become its icon: the Torre dos Clérigos
(English: Clerics Tower).During the 18th and
19th centuries the city became an important industrial centre and
saw its size and population increase.
19th century
The invasion of the Napoleonic troops in Portugal under Marshal
Soult is still vividly remembered
in Porto. On 29 March 1809, as the population fled from the
advancing troops and tried to cross the river Douro over the
Ponte das Barcas (a pontoon bridge), the bridge collapsed
under the weight.
This event is still remembered by a plate at
the Ponte
D.
Luis I. The
French army
was rooted out of Porto by
Arthur Wellesley, 1st
Duke of Wellington, when his troops crossed the Douro river
from the Mosteiro da Serra do Pilar (a former convent) in a
brilliant daylight
coup de main.In
August 1820, Porto rebelled against the English presence, resulting
in a
civil war in
Portugal. In 1822, a liberal constitution was accepted, partly
through the efforts of the liberal assembly of Porto (Junta do
Porto).
When Miguel of
Portugal took the Portuguese throne in 1828, he rejected this constitution and
reigned as an absolutist monarch. Porto rebelled again and
had to undergo a siege of eighteen months between 1832 and 1833 by
the
absolutist army. Porto is also
called "Cidade Invicta" (English: Unvanquished City) after
resisting the
Miguelist siege. After the
abdication of king Miguel the liberal constitution was
re-established.
Known as the city of bridges, the first permanent bridge – the
Ponte das Barcas (a
pontoon
bridge) – was built in 1806, but three years later, sabotaged.
It was replaced by the
Ponte D. Maria II popularized under the name
Ponte
Pênsil (
suspended bridge) and
built between 1841-43 and of which only the supporting pylons
remain.
The
Ponte
D.
Maria, a railway bridge inaugurated the 4th of
November of that same year, considered by then to be a feat of
wrought iron engineering and designed
by no other than Gustave Eiffel
himself. But this bridge is not to be mistaken for
the later Ponte Dom Luís I, which was in turn to substitute the aforementioned
Ponte Pênsil. This last bridge was made by
Teophile Seyrig, a former partner of Eiffel,
and its project won a governmental competition that took place in
1879. Building began in 1881 and it was opened to the public the
31st October 1886.
Unrest by republicans led to a revolt in Porto on 31 January 1891.
This
would result ultimately in the creation of the Portuguese Republic in 1910.
A higher learning institution in
nautical sciences (Aula de Náutica, 1762)
and a
stock exchange (Bolsa do Porto,
1834) were established in the city but would be discontinued
later.
20th century
In 1958 and 1960, Porto's streets hosted the
Formula One Portuguese Grand Prix.
The historic centre of Porto was declared a World Heritage Site by
UNESCO in 1996. The World
Heritage site is defined in two
concentric zones; the "Protected area", and within it the
"Classified area". The Classified area comprises the medieval
borough located inside the
14th-century
Romanesque wall.
Highlights
In recent
years, UNESCO recognised
its historic centre as a World
Heritage Site. Among the architectural highlights of the
city, Oporto
Cathedral
is the oldest surviving structure, together with
the small romanesque
Church of
Cedofeita
, the gothic
Igreja de São Francisco
(Church of Saint
Francis), the remnants of the city
walls and a few 15th-century
houses. The baroque style is well represented in
the city in the elaborate gilt work interior decoration of the churches of St.
Francis and St. Claire (Santa Clara), the churches of
Mercy (Misericórida) and of the Clerics (Igreja dos
Clérigos), the Episcopal Palace of Porto, and
others. The neoclassicism and romanticism of the 19th and 20th centuries also
added interesting monuments to the landscape of the city, like the
magnificent Stock Exchange Palace (Palácio da
Bolsa
), the Hospital of Saint Anthony, the Municipality, the
buildings in the Liberdade
Square and the Avenida dos Aliados, the tile-adorned
São Bento
Train Station
and the gardens of the Crystal Palace (Palácio
de Cristal). A guided visit to the Palácio da
Bolsa, and in particular the Arab Room, is a major
tourist attraction.
In 2001, Porto shared the designation
European Culture Capital.
In the
scope of these events, the construction of the major concert hall
space Casa da
Música
, designed by the Dutch
architect
Rem Koolhaas, was initiated and
finished in 2005.
Many of the city's oldest houses are at risk of collapsing. The
population in Porto municipality dropped by nearly 100,000 since
the 1980s, but the number of permanent residents in the outskirts
and satellite towns has grown strongly.
Porto is
ranked number 3 in the Portuguese most livable cities survey of living conditions published yearly by
Expresso.
Culture
Porto city centre
A typical street in Porto.
The first Portuguese moving pictures were taken in Porto by Aurélio
da Paz dos Reis and shown there on 12 November 1896 in Teatro do
Príncipe Real do Porto, less than a year after the first public
presentation by
Auguste
and Louis Lumière. The country's first
movie studios Invicta Filmes was also erected
in Porto in 1917 and was open from 1918 to 1927 in the area of
Carvalhido.
Manoel de Oliveira, a
Portuguese
film director and the
oldest director in the world who is still active, is from Porto.
Fantasporto is an international
film festival organized in Porto every
year.Many renowned
Portuguese
music artists and cult bands such as
GNR,
Rui Veloso,
Sérgio Godinho,
Clã,
Pluto
and
Ornatos Violeta are from the
city or its metropolitan area.Porto has several museums, concert
halls, theaters, cinemas,
art galleries,
libraries and book shops.
The best-known museums of Oporto are the
National
Museum Soares dos Reis
(Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis), which
is dedicated especially to the Portuguese artistic movements from the 16th to the 20th
century, and the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Serralves
Foundation
(Museu de Arte
Contemporânea).The city has concert halls of a rare beauty
and elegance such as the Coliseu do Porto
by the Portuguese architect Cassiano Branco;
an exquisite example of the Portuguese decorative arts. Other notable venues
include the historical São João
National Theatre
, the Rivoli theatre, the Batalha
cinema
and the recent Casa da
Música. The city has a magnificent, and
beautiful bookshop, "Lello", that was featured in third place in
The Guardian's list of world's top
bookshops. From the three top bookshops, Lello was the only one
that was originally built to be a bookshop, as the other ones were,
repectively, a church and a theatre.
Entertainment
Porto's most popular event is St. John (
São João Festival
) on the night of 23 to 24 of June. In this season it's a tradition
to have a vase with bush basil decorated with a small poem. During
the dinner of the great day people usually eat sardines and boiled
potatoes together with red wine.
Another major event is
Queima das
Fitas, that starts in the first Sunday of May and ends in the
second Sunday of the month. Basically, before the beginning of the
study period preceding the school year’s
last exams,
academia tries to have as much
fun as possible. The week comprehends 12 events, starting with the
Monumental Serenata on Sunday, reaching its peak with the Cortejo
Académico on Tuesday, when about 50,000 students of the city's
higher education institutions march
through the downtown streets till they reach the city hall. During
every night of the week a series of concerts takes place on the
Queimódromo, next to the city’s park; here it’s also a tradition
for the students in the second last year to erect small tents where
alcoholic beverages are sold in
order to finance the trip that takes place during the last year of
their course; an average of 50 000 students attend these
shows.
Arts
In 2005, the municipality funded a
public
sculpture to be built in the Waterfront Plaza of
Matosinhos. The resulting sculpture is entitled
She Changes by American artist,
Janet Echelman, and spans the height of
50 × 150 × 150 meters.
Cuisine
Port wine is what the city is best
known for.
Porto is home to a number of dishes from traditional
Portuguese cuisine.
A typical dish from this city is
Tripas à
Moda do Porto (
Tripes Porto style),
which still can be found everywhere in the city today.
Bacalhau à Gomes de
Sá (Gomes de Sá
Bacalhau) is
another typical
codfish dish born in Porto and
popular in Portugal.
The
Francesinha (literally
Frenchy) is the most famous popular native snack food in Porto. It
is a kind of sandwich with several meats covered with cheese and a
special sauce made with beer and other ingredients.
Port wine, an internationally renowned wine, is
widely accepted as the city's dessert
wine, especially being that the wine is made along the Douro River which
runs through the city.
Transport
Roads and bridges
Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport.
The Metro do Porto.
The road system capacity is augmented by the
Via de Cintura
Interna or A20, an internal highway connected to several
motorways and city exits, complementing the
Circunvalação
4-lane peripheric road, which borders the north of the city and
connects the eastern side of the city to the Atlantic shore. The
city is connected to Valença by highway A28, to Estarreja by the
A29, to Lisbon by the A1, to Amarante by the A4 and to Braga by the
A3. There is also an outer-ring road the A41 that connects all the
main cities around Porto, linking the city to other major
metropolitan highways such as the A7, A11, A42, A43 and A44.
In the
future a new highway, the A32, is to connect the city to São João da
Madeira
.
During
the 20th century, major bridges were built: Arrábida
Bridge
, which at its opening had the biggest concrete
supporting arch in the world, and connects north and south shores
of the Douro on the west side of the city, S.
João, to replace
D. Maria Pia and
Freixo, a highway bridge on the east side of the city. The
newest bridge is
Ponte do Infante, finished in 2003. Two
more bridges are said to be under designing stages and due to be
built in the next 10 years, one on the Campo Alegre area, nearby
the Faculty of Humanities and the Arts, and another one in the area
known as the Massarelos valley.
Nowadays, Porto is often known as
Cidade das Pontes (City
of Bridges), "Cidade Invicta" (Invincible City) and "Capital do
Norte" (The Capital of the North).
Airports
Porto is
served by Francisco de Sá Carneiro
Airport
which is located in Pedras Rubras, Moreira civil
parish of the neighbouring Municipality
of Maia, some 15 km to the north-west of the city
centre. The airport is a state-of-the-art facility, having
undergone a massive programme of refurbishment due to the
Euro 2004 football championships being partly
hosted in the city.
Public transport
Railways
Porto's
main railway station is situated in Campanhã
, located in the eastern part of the city
(connecting to the lines of Douro (Peso da Régua/Tua/Pocinho),
Minho (Barcelos/Viana do Castelo/Valença) and Norte (on the main
line to Aveiro, Coimbra and Lisbon).
From here, both
light rail and
suburban rail services connect to the city
centre.
The main central
station is São Bento Station, which is itself a notable landmark located in the
heart of Porto.
Subway/Light rail
Currently the major project is the
Porto
Metro system. Consequently, the Infante bridge was built for
urban traffic, replacing the Dom Luís I, which was dedicated to the
subway on the second and higher of the bridge's two levels.
Five
lines are open: lines A (blue), B (red), C (green) and E (purple)
all begin at Estádio do Dragão
(home to FC Porto) and
terminate at Senhor do Matosinhos, Póvoa de Varzim
(via Vila do Conde
), ISMAI (via Maia) and
Francisco Sá Carneiro airport respectively. Line D (yellow)
currently runs from Hospital S. João in the north to D.
João II on the southern side of the
Douro river. The lines intersect at the central
Trindade station. Currently the whole
network spans 60 km (37 miles) using 68 stations, thus being
the biggest
metro system in the
country.
Buses
The city
has an extensive bus network run by the
STCP
(Sociedade dos Transportes Colectivos do Porto, or Porto Public Transport Society) which also
operates lines in the neighbouring cities of Gaia, Maia and Gondomar
. Other smaller companies connect such towns
as Paços de Ferreira and
Santo
Tirso
to the town center. In the past the city
also had
trolleybuses.
Trams
A tram
network, of which only a tourist line on the shores of the Douro
remain, saw its construction begin in 12 September 1895, therefore
being the first in the Iberian Peninsula.
Porto Light Rail opened in January 2003.
centre
Climate
Porto has a cool-summer
Mediterranean climate (
Köppen climate
classification Csb) with substantial winter rainfall. As a
result, its climate shares many characteristics with the coastal
south: warm, dry summers and mild, rainy winters. Unlike the south,
however, cool and rainy interludes can interrupt the
dry season and the season's average length is
usually shorter.
Summers are typically sunny with average temperatures between 15°C
and 27°C but can rise to as high as 40°C during occasional heat
waves. During such heat waves the
humidity
remains quite low, but nearby
forest fires
can add haze and ash to the air making breathing somewhat
uncomfortable, especially at night. Nearby beaches are often windy
and usually cooler than the
urban areas.
In contrast, occasional summer rainy periods may last a few days
and are characterized by showers and cool temperatures of around
22°C in the afternoon.
Winter temperatures typically range between 5°C during morning and
14°C during afternoon but rarely drop below 0°C at night. The
weather is often rainy for long stretches although prolonged sunny
periods do occur.
Economy
has always rivaled
Lisbon in
economic power. As the most important
city in the heavily industrialised northwest, many of the largest
Portuguese corporations from diverse
economic
sectors, like
Altri,
Ambar,
Amorim,
Bial,
Cerealis,
BPI,
CIN,
EFACEC,
Frulact,
Lactogal,
Millennium bcp,
Porto Editora,
Grupo
RAR,
Sonae,
Sonae Indústria, and
Unicer, are headquartered in the
Greater Metropolitan Area of
Porto, most notably, in the core municipalities of
Maia,
Matosinhos,
Porto, and
Vila Nova de
Gaia.
The
country's biggest exporter (Petrogal)
has one of its two refineries near the city, in Leça da
Palmeira
(13 km) and the second biggest (Qimonda, now bankrupt) has its only factory also
near the city in Mindelo (26 km).
The city's former
stock exchange
(
Bolsa do Porto) was transformed
into the largest
derivatives
exchange of Portugal, and merged with
Lisbon Stock Exchange to create the
Bolsa de Valores de Lisboa e Porto, which
eventually merged with
Euronext, together
with Amsterdam, Brussels,
LIFFE
and Paris stock and
futures
exchanges. The building formerly hosting the stock exchange is
currently one of the city's touristic attractions, the Salão Árabe
(Arab Room in English) being its major highlight.
Porto hosts a popular Portuguese newspaper,
Jornal de Notícias. The
building where its offices are located (which has the same name as
the newspaper) was up to recently one of the tallest in the city
(it has been superseded by a number of modern buildings which have
been built since the 1990s).
Porto Editora, one of the biggest
Portuguese publishers, is also in Porto. Its dictionaries are among
the most popular references used in the country, and the
translations are very popular as well.
The
economic relations between the city of Porto and the Upper Douro River have been documented since the Middle Ages. However, they were greatly
deepened in the modern ages. Indeed,
sumach,
dry fruits and
nut and the Douro
olive oils sustained prosperous exchanges
between the region and Porto. From the riverside quays at the river
mouth, these products were exported to other markets of the
Old and
New
World. But the greatest lever to interregional trade relations
resulted from the commercial dynamics of the
Port wine (
Vinho do Porto) agro industry.
It decidedly bolstered the complementary relationship between the
large coastal urban centre, endowed with open doors to the sea, and
a region with significant agricultural potential, especially in
terms of the production of extremely high quality
fortified wines, today known by the
world-famous label
Port. The development of Porto was also
closely connected with the left margin of River Douro in
Vila Nova de Gaia, where is located the
amphitheatre-shaped slope with the Port wine cellars.
In a study concerning
competitiveness of the 18 Portuguese
district capitals, Porto was the worst-ranked.
The study was made by
Minho
University
economics researchers and was published in Público newspaper on 30 September
2006. The best-ranked cities in the study were
Évora, Lisbon and Coimbra. Nevertheless, the validity of this
study was questioned by some Porto's notable figures (such as local
politicians and businesspersons) who argued that the city proper
does not function independently but in conurbation with other
municipalities.
A new ranking, published in the newspaper
Expresso in 2007
which can be translated to "The Best Cities to Live in Portugal"
ranked Porto in third place (tied with Évora) below Guimarães and Lisbon. The
two studies are not directly comparable as they use different
dependent measures.
Education
The city has a large number of public and private
basic and secondary schools, as well
as kindergartens and nurseries. Due to the depopulation of the
city's interior, however, the number of students has dropped
substantially in the last decade, forcing a closure of some
institutions. The largest and oldest
international school located in Porto
is the
Oporto British School
established in 1894.
Porto has several institutions of higher education, the larger one
being the state-managed
University
of Porto (
Universidade do Porto), which is the largest
Portuguese
university with approximately
28,000 students.
There are also a state-managed polytechnic institute, the Instituto Politécnico do
Porto (a group of technical colleges), and privately-owned
institutions like the Universidade Fernando Pessoa
(UFP), the Porto's Higher Education School of Arts
(ESAP- Escola Superior Artística do Porto) and a Vatican state
university, the Portuguese Catholic
University at Porto (Universidade Católica Portuguesa -
Porto) and the Portucalense
University at Porto (Universidade Portucalense - Infante
D. Henrique). Due to the recognition,
potential for employment and higher revenue, there are many
students from the entire country and particularly from the
north of Portugal, attending a college or
university in Porto.
For foreigners wishing to study Portuguese in the city, there are a
number of options. As the most popular city in Portugal for
ERASMUS students, most
universities have facilities to assist foreigners in learning the
language. There are also several private learning institutions in
the city, such as the Fast Forward Language Institute
Public health
Porto district has the highest rate
of
tuberculosis positive cases in
Portugal.
Porto tuberculosis rates are at Third World proportions (comparatively, London
faces a
similar phenomenon ). The incidence of positive cases was
23/100 000 nationwide in 1994, with a rate of 24/100 000 in Lisbon
and 37/100 000 in Porto. Porto area represented the worst
epidemiological situation in the country, with very high rates in
some city boroughs and in some poor fishing and declining
industrial communities. Epidemiological analysis indicated the
existence of undisclosed sources of infection in these communities,
responsible for continuing transmission despite a cure rate of 83%
in the district. In 2002, the situation was not better with 34/100
000 nationwide and 64/100 000 in Porto district. In 2004 the
situation improved to 53/100 000.
Sports
Like most Portuguese cities,
football is the most important sport in
the city. There are three main teams in Porto. the First one is Top
division champion
F.C. Porto. The second one is
Boavista F.C. which was once a team from the
top division , but due to problems it went from the top to the
lowest division. The last one is
S.C. Salgueiros, it was one of the most regular
first division clubs during the 1980s and 1990s , but they felt
into heavy debts and now they play in the regionals.
The major ground on
the city is the Estádio do Dragão , while Estádio do Bessa
, which was also a major ground was taken off from
Boavista F.C. Both of them were stadiums used for some
Euro 2004 games which took place in
the city. Salgueiros, who sold their
Vidal Pinheiro ground
to the Porto Metro company planned to build a new one in the
Arca d'Água zone, few hundred meters away from the old
grounds, but due to a large underground water pocket, it is
impossible to build there, and so they moved to the
Estádio do
Mar in
Matosinhos, owned by
Leixões S.C.. There are other football
grounds, with sand or dirt surfaces, owned by clubs in the amateur
league, with the exception of FC Porto's old stadium, the
Campo da Constituição, which
is now a footballing school.FC Porto won the
UEFA Champions League in 1987 (then
known as the
European Cup) and
in 2004. Their long time president,
Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa, is one
a major figure in Portuguese football. He managed to establish FC
Porto as one of the most powerful
European
football clubs and reduce the influence of the Lisbon clubs.
José Mourinho coached Porto to a victory
in the 2003 UEFA Cup
(beating Celtic in the final in the
Estadio
Olímpico de Sevilla
) and their 2004 Champions League
win which was clinched with a victory over Monaco. FC Porto also won the
Intercontinental Cup (also
known as the Toyota Cup) in 1987 and once again in 2004.
There are
other sports arenas in Porto, notably the city-owned Pavilhão
Rosa Mota
(now unused due to a bad relationship between
the mayor and the FC Porto board), swimming pools in the Constituição
area, between the Marquês and Boavista, and other
minor arenas, such as the Pavilhão do
Académico.
Porto is also home to the North of Portugal's only
cricket club, the
Oporto Cricket and Lawn
Tennis Club.
Every year, for more than 100 years, a
match, the Kendall Cup, has been played
between the Oporto Club and the Casuals Club of Lisbon, as well as
various games against touring teams, mainly from England
. The Club and pitch are located off
Rua
Campo Alegre.
In 1958
and 1960, Porto's streets hosted the Formula One Portuguese Grand Prix on the Boavista
street circuit
. Now every year , they do reenactments of
the races. Circuito da Boavista also hosts a race of WTCC.
In Athletics competitions, every year in October is the
Porto Marathon in the streets of the
town.
Parishes
International relations
Twin towns — Sister cities
Porto is
twinned with:
Partner towns
Within the context of development cooperation, Porto is also linked
to:
Famous inhabitants
References
External links