Last week, I described the start of my walk through Porto’s Old City, from my hotel to the São Bento train station. This week, I am continuing that trek through Portugal’s second city.
The São Bento station sits at the bottom of a ravine, but my next stop was up at its top, a climb of over 20m in a distance of 600m. I was headed to the Portuguese Center for Photography. The center was founded in 1996, as more and more of the photographers who had been exiled during the Salazar regime returned to the country. The museum is housed in the former Caderia da Relacão, a former prison.
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| Center of Portuguese Photography by By Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0, via wikimedia |
The main exhibition on display was Despojos de Guerra (Spoils of War) by Leonel de Castro. These photos document the injuries that occurred during the various wars of liberation in the Portuguese colonies in Africa.
The second exhibit was photos taken during during the revolution of April 25, 1974. This uprising of political groups and the military removed the fascist regime founded Antonio De Oliveira Salazar (1889-1970).
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| Between 2:00pm and 3:00pm, intersection of Rua Garrett and Calça do Sacramento |
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| Largo do Carmo - around 2:00pm |
The museum also houses a wonderful collection of classic cameras, which are spread throughout the building.
From the Center for Photography, I continued on to the Jardins do Palácio de Cristál (Crystal Palace Gardens). The palace and gardens were built as part of the 1865 International Exhibition. The palace was demolished in 1951, and replaced by a sports arena, today called the Super Bock Arena.
The Gardens covers 8 hectares (80,000 sq. m). They sit atop the cliffs, offering great views of the Douro River and Porto’s Old City.
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| Chapel of Carlos Alberto |
The final stage of my walk was from the Gardens down to the banks of the river. It took me through the Escadaria Macieirnihas (Apple Staircase), a winding pedestrian alleyway.
My favorite thing to do when I travel is to explore a place on foot. This was a decent walk, especially given the heat and the hills. But it gave me the opportunity to see a wide swath of Porto’s Old City.
We were there in 2012 for a Douro River boat tour which took us up a massive series of docks that raised the boat towards Spain. I remember that major book store.
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