Porto
Portugal´s second city
Pavement cafe in Porto - João Paulo
Built on hills overlooking the river Douro in the north of Portugal, Porto is a very modern, European city with a rich history of trade, industry and exploration. Henry the Navigator was born here in 1394, third son of King João I and of Queen Phillipa of Lancaster. Dom Henriques parents had been brought together to seal the pact of friendship and alliance between the Portuguese and English monarchy.
Dom Henriques famously promoted and funded the Discoveries, the project that saw the first Europeans travelling by sea to the mouth of the Congo river, to the Cape of Good Hope and beyond into India. These explorations transformed human history by opening up trade routes between Europe and the Far East.
Porto is probably most well known to the English because of the association with the Port wine trade, for which the city originally became wealthy. However, Portugal's first encounter with the English occured in 1147, when crusaders on their way to the Holy Land, sheltered from the Atlantic storms in Porto. King Afonso Henriques took advantage of their precense by hiring their services to overthrow the Moorish control of Lisbon.
The shipping of wine in exchange for cod and cloth has been going on between Britain and Portugal since the fifteenth century at least, and by the mid-eighteenth century port had become the favoured after-dinner drink for the English upper and middle classes. Traders from Bristol, Plymouth and London set up agencies in Porto, and a sizeable English community soon established a permanant residnce in the city. The Methuen Treaty of 1703 increased this trade by granting special rates for the export of port wine to England.
Douro Vineyards
João Paulo
The grapes are grown in the Douro and then aged and bottled in Porto. Ports unmistakable bouquet, body and flavour are due to the high quality of the grapes, as well as to the region's unique soil and climatic conditions. In 1757 the Marquis de Pombal demarcated the Douro Valley vineyards, creating and regulating the first Demarcated Wine Region in the whole world.
Just above the north of Portugal sits the Galicia region of Spain, Porto has long established history of trading with Galicia, for many years Galician fishermen supplied the city with seafood. As time progressed the traders brought with them textiles from Castile, silks and scented soaps from Valencia and sweet fruit syrups from Malaga.
Partly due to its long trading history and location Porto and its neighbouring cities were the first in Portugal to be transformed by the industrial revolution. Large numbers of textile mills were opened here in the eighteenth century and this area remains the biggest and busiest industrial zone of Portugal. Porto has often found itself at the centre of the various revolutions, both liberal and authoritarian, to have swept through Portugal over the centuries.
Tomas Antonio Gonzaga, a poet born in Porto, famously lent his support to the revolutionary movement supporting the independence of Brazil and was for this banished to Mozambique by the monarchy. Nineteenth century activists, journalists and writers such as Almeida Garret, Ramalho Ortigao and Camilo Castel Branco profoundly affected the literary culture of their time.
Porto has long ties to Brazil, due to the large numbers of Porto traders who went made their wealth in the then colony, before returning to build lavish homes in Porto. Many of these families settled in the eastern side of Porto, an area refered to as the Oriental Quarter, due to its exotic architecture and refined aesthetics.
Useful Links
www.portoturismo.pt.
This is the official website of the Porto tourist board on which you can find more information
about the history of Porto, as well as maps and other useful information for
tourists. The site has translations for English and Spanish speaking visitors.
Hotels in Porto
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