Last Update: March 18, 2007
The Most Remarkable Periods
Middle ages were determinant in the urban shaping of Oporto. The walls of 12th and 14th centuries, the Sé Catedral, the Alfândega Velha (Preince´s house), the quarter of the Sé, the Barredo, the Ribeira and Miragaia existed already in the Middle Ages and they keep today their essential shape and structure.
But it is the Mauralha Fernandina (Fernandin Wall) that determines the expansion axis and the radial structure of the city, from the 14th century up to this day.
Campo Alegre/Serralves/Vilarinha, Cedofeita, Bonjardim, Santa Catarina, Santo Ildefonso, these are streets that have resulted from the urbanisation of old paths, which, from the doors of the wall, led to Matosinhos, Vila do Conde, Santo Tirso, Braga, and Penafiel.
But, beyond the physical signs that the Middle Ages left in the territory, important traces remained as regards character as well.
It goes back to the Middle Ages the privilege of not letting noblemen to stay in Oporto for more than three nights! And they would have their works stopped if they tried to build lodgings at a distance that might be considered unsuitable by the bourgeois merchants of the city.
In the 18th century some factors were met which favoured the development of the city.
Once the independence towards Spain was guaranteed, gold arrived from Brazil, Port Wine exported to England, and the artists arrived, which were good enough to leave their marks and win disciples.
This is the time of Nazoni, who dominates the first half of the century, leaving in the city and in the region some architectural examples of the most accurate baroque style, where he used our stone.
The inside of the churches expresses the triumph of the woodcarving art covered in gold, its higher representation being S. Francisco and Santa Clara.
Apart from architecture and sculpture, this period expresses itself through urbanism which, in Oporto, takes on particularly interesting and successful marks with the triangulation of monuments, similarly to what happens in the Rome of Sisto V, allowing the shaping of pilgrimage or procession courses.
From the Misericórdia one could get a glimpse of S. Bento da Avé Maria, from there we could see the Congregados and from there the Clérigos on one side and Santo Ildefonso on the other; from Clérigos one could see the Carmo and the Carmelitas and from here the Taipas.
One can see Clérigos from unexpected and distant places in Cedofeita, Ponte Nova and Praça do Infante.
But the 18th century in Oporto does no restrain itself to Nazoni and the baroque period he represents.
Some good examples of the importance given to the structuring of urban spaces are the city’s spreading outside the wall, demolished at that time, the urban qualification of the old ways out, transformed in rectilinear axis with their image consolidated by imposed façades of a great monumentality, the opening and urbanisation of the Rua de S. João, the excellent intervention of John Whitehead in the Praça da Ribeira, the new quays along the whole boarding area from the Guindais up to Massarelos, the Rua da Restauração, joining high level and low level.
But this period left its marks beyond public spaces. The same happened with buildings, like the Santo António Hospital and the Feitoria Inglesa (British Factory).
The Industrial Revolution, in the XIXth century, was not strongly felt in Portugal with the exception of Oporto.
The civil war over, still in the thirties, Oporto´s trend towards work arises, getting proletariat and bourgeois available for deep economical and social transformations of indelible consequences on the physical structure of the city.
The old commercial bourgeoisie becomes divided and starts its industrial activity that will develop important sectors within metallurgy, ceramics, textiles, transports and public works.
From Douro, Minho and Beiras an important “army” of workers arrives, ready to work in the manufacturing and in the operation of machines.
Oporto is no more a commerce-based city to become a city of workers. Steam fills the plants, the railways and the boats with mechanical energy. Tonnages and speeds reach higher limits.
The custom-house became so small that a new one is required extending itself along the whole Miragaia beach, huge bridges appear one after the other, S. Bento is demolished and gives room to the central station and tunnels are drilled to link railways lines.
Mouzinho da Silveira covers what is left from the Rio da Vila, opening a new axis between the harbour and the centre of the city. The Stock Exchange goes back to this time. The city experienced such a growth that it ends by melting all the agglomerates of Oporto Council in a sole city, from Campanhã to Foz.