From the Cordoaria to the Palácio de Cristal: a self-guided walk
By Alleytale
Porto's gardens, museums and a hospital on the western ridge
Foreign hands shaped this side of Porto: an English architect designed the hospital, a German landscape designer laid out the garden around the Palácio de Cristal, and a king from Piedmont-Sardinia came here in exile.
The stops
The Portuguese Centre of Photography was founded in 1997, after the Ministry of Culture created it in 1996. It is housed in the former Cadeia da Relação, a jail whose name refers to the Tribunal de Relação, a court of second instance. The architects Eduardo Souto Moura and Humberto Vieira restored and adapted the building, and the centre has occupied all of it since 2001.
Photo: CARLOS TEIXIDOR CADENAS — CC BY-SA 4.0 Officially the Jardim de João Chagas, this garden is popularly known as the Jardim da Cordoaria. It was founded in 1865 by the Viscount of Vilar d'Allen, with an initial design attributed to the German landscape designer Émile David, and a cyclone in 1941 changed much of its romantic look. Its sculptures include Flora from 1904 by António Teixeira Lopes and, from 2001, Treze a rir uns dos outros by Juan Muñoz.
Photo: Alain Rouiller — CC BY-SA 2.0 The hospital was built between 1770 and 1825 to a plan by the English architect John Carr, later known as Carr of York. The Porto tourist board describes it as neo-Palladian English style, also called Port Wine Architecture.
Photo: Mister No — CC BY 3.0 The museum was founded in 1833 as the Museum Portuense by King Peter IV. It takes its name from the sculptor António Soares dos Reis, whose work it acquired in 1911. Since 1942 it has been in the Carrancas Palace, the former home of the Moraes e Castro family, which the architect Fernando Távora later expanded and modernized.
Photo: -wuppertaler — CC BY-SA 4.0 The German landscape architect Émile David designed these romantic gardens in the 1860s to surround the Palácio de Cristal, which was replaced in the 1950s by the Pavilhão Rosa Mota. They cover 9.57 hectares and have several lookouts with views of the Douro and the Atlantic. The Avenida das Tílias is the main axis, with the municipal library, an acoustic shell and a chapel along it.
Photo: -wuppertaler — CC BY-SA 4.0 Princess Augusta de Montléart had this chapel built in honor of her half-brother Charles Albert, king of Piedmont-Sardinia, who went into exile in Porto in 1849 and died at the Quinta da Macieirinha that year. The works lasted nearly six years, the first mass was held on 25 December 1861, and three sculptures bought in Paris stand inside. His body was later moved to Turin.
Photo: -wuppertaler — CC BY-SA 4.0
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