At the mouth of the Douro River sits the historic hillside city of Porto, home to one of the oldest urban centers (Ribeira district) in southern Europe and the second-largest city in Portugal. A mercantile city at heart, the area is strongely affected by its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, boasting a variety of architectural and cultural influences that have evolved for over a millennia. Originally founded by the Romans as a administrative and trading center under the name Portus (port), the city has seen a variety of urban development from numerous stylistic periods and militaristic conflicts by successive groups including the Swabians, Visigoths, Normans, and Moors. By the 11th century, the region would firmly be established as part of the Castilian realm after the crusade to drive the Moors out of Portugal and become part of a new kingdom. The first period of expansion would soon follow with the construction of a new town wall protecting the two urban nucleai - the medieval town and harbor area, making the entire city an impenetrable-like fortress, a component whcih can still be felt today.
Porto’s Ribeira District with Clérigos Tower
Boats along the Douro River waterfront in Vila Nova de Gaia
The complexities of the area’s landforms aided in this construction with a variety of buildings/walls built into the cliff faces that overlook the river, creating a maze of steep stairs and narrow cobbled streets that cut into the stone itself and run up and down the cliff. Today, the Ribeira Dirctict (a World Heritage site by UNESCO) still remains intact with a mixture of Roman ruins, medieval relics, soaring bell towers, extravagant baroque churches and venerable town houses piled ontop of one another, while a renewed infastructural system and cultural resurgance has the young and contemporary inhabitants moving from the banks of the river and into the city’s new sprawling cosmopolitan suburbs by the sea. Across the river, in the suburb of Gaia, the birthplace of port wine is evident in nearby Vila Nova de Gaia with numerous riverside wine caves jockeying for attention offering tastings and entertainment, becoming a popular nightlife district - leading to the city’s well-known marketing phrase “You’ve tried the wine; now try the city”. The growing cosmopolitan city has perplexed those outsde of Porto, who considered the city to be more inelegant and working class than the rest of the country, likely due to the area’s long dominate mercantile history and lack of noble prescience, unlike its sister city to the South - Lisbon. However, while proudly Portuguese, the city holds itself apart from the rest of the country, knowing justifibly they are the economic heart of the nation with a higher sense of international culture and values.
Porto's Ribeira Waterfront along the Douro river
Azulejo - popular Portuguese painted ceramic tilework
Alvaro Siza's Leça Swimming Pools