Medieval and Ribeira Tour
You will immerse yourself in the bowels of a Unesco World Heritage city, marked by its two walls.
Travel to the most heroic Porto
From the top of the city, looking towards the Douro river, you can see the Porto Cathedral. It is one of the most monumental and important buildings in the city, episcopal headquarters of the diocese of Porto and witness of the stylistic changes that history and its city have undergone.
It began to be built in the 12th century, a time of crusades and reconquest, so we observe that it may seem more like a castle, a fortress, than a religious building. To its Romanesque style in the towers and on the floor of the church, Gothic was added in the 13th century, with a funeral chapel and a cloister, finishing off the reconstructions in the middle of the 18th century, by the great architect Nicolau Nasoni, adding Baroque elements to the temple, such as the narthex or the double staircase at the main entrance.
The Porto Cathedral is a Portuguese building, and if there is something that characterizes the Portuguese buildings, we are talking about the most famous azulejos (tiles), something that could not be missing on the walls of the Cathedral. They tell us two stories that, at first glance, doesn't have nothing to do with each other. On the one hand they exhibit the life of the Virgin; on the other, Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Around the Porto Cathedral, several statues complete the scene. On one of the sides a gentleman looks directly at it on his horse. It is Vimara Peres, who conquered Porto from the Muslims. In front of it, there is a column with irons on top, a pelourinho (pillory) that was never used. And, right next to the cathedral, a huge white building closes the square, the impressive Episcopal Palace.
To know this and much more, join us on our Old Town and Wine Tour and let yourself be seduced by the history of ancient Porto.
Labels: architecture , places , Porto