Porto: Wine, the English and the Ribeira

You are in the Mercado do Bolhão. Look at the two floors of iron galleries, the fish stalls, the flowers, the cured meats, and the people haggling in a fast, closed Portuguese. There has been a market on this site since the mid nineteenth century. The current building dates from the early twentieth century and spent years under renovation: it reopened in 2022, restored, with the same old stalls. Before starting, a question: where does the name Portugal come from? From here. In Roman times there was a port at the mouth of the Douro called Portus Cale. Over the centuries the name spread to the…

You are on the Avenida dos Aliados. Look up the slope: at the end, the granite city hall with its tower. On either side, facades of banks and insurance companies from the early twentieth century. The avenue is named after the Allies of the First World War. Portugal entered that war on the side of England and France. Once again, on the English side. This is the city's living room. Porto football titles are celebrated here, demonstrations are held here, the New Year is welcomed here. Porto has a reputation as a rebel city, and it earned it. In 1820 the liberal revolution broke out here, forci…

You are in front of the Livraria Lello. Look at the white neo-Gothic facade with its two painted figures, and the line of people waiting to enter a bookshop. Inside there is a red staircase that curls like a ribbon, carved wooden shelves up to the ceiling and a stained-glass window overhead. It opened in 1906, and for almost a century it was simply a good bookshop. Then came Harry Potter. J. K. Rowling lived in Porto in the early nineties, teaching English, while she wrote the first chapters of her book. And the idea took hold that this staircase had inspired Hogwarts. The crowds became suc…

You are at the foot of the Clérigos Tower. Look up: seventy-five meters of baroque granite, with balconies, scrolls and a dome at the top. For over a century it was the tallest structure in Portugal. Ships entering the Douro used it as a landmark to find their way. It was designed by Nicolau Nasoni, a painter and architect born in Tuscany who came to Porto in 1725 to decorate the cathedral. He meant to stay a while. He stayed his whole life. Nasoni filled the city with baroque: churches, palaces, facades. This tower, finished in 1763, was his most famous work. He asked to be buried here, i…

You are in the hall of São Bento station. Look at the walls: some twenty thousand blue and white tiles telling the history of Portugal in huge scenes. They were painted by Jorge Colaço in the early twentieth century. A convent of Benedictine nuns used to stand here. When the last nun died, the convent was closed and the station was built in its place, opening in 1916. Look for the panel showing a triumphal entry into the city: it is the arrival of King João the First and his wife in Porto. His wife was Philippa of Lancaster. She was English, a granddaughter of King Edward the Third of Engla…

You are on the terrace of the Sé, Porto's cathedral. Look at the facade: two square towers with battlements, like a castle. In front, a twisted stone column, the pelourinho. The cathedral is Romanesque, from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It was built on the highest part of the city, inside the wall. That is why it looks like a fortress: it was one too. The pelourinho was the pillory. Convicts were displayed and punished there in front of the whole town. The one you see is a twentieth-century reconstruction, but the spot is the same. In February 1387, in this cathedral, João the Firs…

You are in front of the Feitoria Inglesa, the Factory House. Look at the granite building with arcades on the ground floor and regular windows, sober, almost severe. It has no sign. It does not need one. It was finished around 1790. It was designed by the British consul in Porto, John Whitehead. It was the meeting place of the English wine merchants. Prices were set here, deals were closed, harvests and ships were discussed. And people ate and drank, a lot, in rooms with crystal chandeliers and a cellar holding some of the oldest port in the world. It still operates. It is a private club: i…

You are in front of the Casa do Infante. Look at the stone building, massive, with few windows. For centuries it was Porto's royal customs house: the river's goods passed through here, and paid. Tradition says that in this house, in 1394, Prince Henry was born, son of João the First and the Englishwoman Philippa of Lancaster. Henry never became king and hardly ever sailed. But he organized and financed the expeditions that went down the coast of Africa. Portugal's expansion across the ocean began with him. Something else began too. Those expeditions opened the way to the trafficking of ensl…

You are in the Ribeira, by the river. Look at the tall, narrow houses painted in colors, with laundry hanging from the balconies. It is the postcard of Porto, and it is a World Heritage Site. Now look on a wall near the quay for a small bronze relief with candles and flowers in front of it. It is called the Alminhas da Ponte, the little souls of the bridge. On 29 March 1809 Napoleon's troops, under Marshal Soult, entered Porto. The population fled en masse toward the river to cross to the other bank. At that time the only crossing was a bridge of boats: vessels tied to each other with a dec…

You are at the entrance to the lower deck of the Dom Luís I bridge. Look at the iron arch leaping from one bank to the other, and above it the second deck, more than forty meters over the water, where the metro runs. It opened in 1886. It was designed by the Belgian engineer Théophile Seyrig, who had been a partner of Gustave Eiffel. Together they had built, upriver, the Maria Pia railway bridge. That is why everyone says this bridge is by Eiffel. It is not. It is by his disciple and former partner, who split from him and beat him in this competition. When it was finished, its arch of a hun…

You are on the quay of Vila Nova de Gaia. Look at the flat-bottomed wooden boats with barrels on deck: they are rabelos. And behind them, the roofs of the wine lodges with brand names in enormous letters. Port grapes do not grow here. They grow more than a hundred kilometers upriver, on the slopes of the Douro valley. For centuries the wine came down in barrels on these rabelos, along a river full of rapids. Here it was stored and aged, in cool, damp, north-facing lodges. And from here it left for England. Why England? Because of a war. At the end of the seventeenth century England was figh…

You are at the viewpoint of the Serra do Pilar Monastery. Look down: the iron bridge, the river, the colorful Ribeira and, crowning the city, the cathedral and the Clérigos Tower. It is the best view of Porto. The monastery has a round church and a round cloister, something rare in Portugal. It belonged to the Augustinian canons. Today it is part of the World Heritage Site, like the Ribeira opposite. In May 1809 Marshal Soult's French were still occupying Porto. They had destroyed the bridge of boats and taken the boats to their own bank. They felt safe behind the river. From this hill a Br…