At 2.30pm on Saturday 5 October, a rather wet afternoon, 20 intrepid members and guests set off on a three-hour trek in Porto through old streets full of hidden history downhill to the river and the ‘Praça da Ribeira'. The guided walk was led by Michael Rothwell, a BSHP member based in Porto, who also supplied a map of the City and a plan of the walk. The chairman and vice chairman of the Society, Edward Godfrey and Mark Crathorne, visited Porto especially for the occasion, and were most welcome.
Commencing in ´Largo Amor de Perdição’ close to ‘Torre dos Clérigos’, the famous 18th century construction by Nicolau Nasoni, we passed the ‘Café Olival’ nearby, which contains part of the Olival Gate of the old 14th century city Wall, and were given much information regarding the old City Gaol where Camilo Castelo Branco was imprisoned for committing adultery with married Ana Plácido. There is a fairly recent statue of him outside the prison embracing a woman, which some take to be his forbidden love. We then walked slowly down through the former Jewish quarter, past the ‘Convento São Bento da Vitória’, where we inspected the Inquisition memorial plaque (installed 1996), remembering the Edict of Expulsion of the Jews in 1496. “Vitória” originates in the Christian ‘victory’ when the Jews were expelled.
Our walk then continued gradually downhill, and we stood at the ‘Vitória Viewpoint’ (where a gun battery was once installed by the Liberals supporting Don Pedro during the Civil War of 1832-34), obtaining perhaps the finest view of the entire old city of Porto, the river, and V. N. de Gaia, all lying before us. Again, various historical points of interest were described to us, including the Sé Catedral, which rose majestically in the middle distance.
It is impossible in a short report to describe the walk in detail. We visited the former British Club near ‘Passeio das Virtudes’ (still in operation until the mid-sixties), now converted to the headquarters of the charitable organisation SAOM which operates the upmarket ‘Restaurante Torreão’, which is famously joined on to a part of the original city walls, which at this point can be climbed. Below the restaurant are the ‘Escadas do Caminho Novo’, which follow the Fernandine Wall all the way down to the ‘Alfândega’ carpark.
After a detour, we found ourselves walking down ‘Rua das Flores’ (formerly ‘Rua Catarina das Flores’), one of the oldest streets in town. There were many other things of interest that our walk leader pointed out, including that the ‘Catarina’ in the street’s name refers to St. Catherine, an early Christian martyr. Several buildings in the street are marked with a Catherine wheel, which was an ancient and cruel form of carrying out the death penalty. We descended to ‘Praça da Ribeira’ via the ‘Bolsa’, famous for its Arab Room {‘Salão Árabe’}, which was used to host a dinner in honour of Queen Elizabeth in 1985. The ‘Bolsa’ was the old Stock Exchange and is built on the grounds of the former cloisters of the ‘Convento de São Francisco’, which were flattened by artillery fire from the Miguelistas (followers of Don Miguel, absolutist brother of Don Pedro), during the Civil War. The Church of São Francisco itself is a fine building, which still very much exists. Across the road is the ‘Mercado Ferreira Borges’, another fine building, no longer used as a market, but as a cultural and exhibition venue and a catering facility.
We descended past the impressive statue of Infante Dom Henrique in the large eponymous square with its lovely palm trees and gardens. Some had already bade their goodbyes, but the hardy few remained for a walk past the 'Casa do Infante', the supposed birthplace of the Infante, and a look at the ‘Postigo de Carvão’ (Postern Coal Gate), the only remaining postern gate of the 14th Century City Wall. Final explanations were given in the ‘Praça da Ribeira’ by Michael, whom we thank heartily for all his careful planning and clear, knowledgeable information conveyed.
AKD
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