Portugal | Porto: The best city in the world

For a long time my favorite city was Strasbourg (France), and no other city was so close to my hearth. But it was before I have visited Portugal. Now in my soul live 2 beautiful, wonderful and picturesque cities: Strasbourg (as before) and Porto.

Before my trip I have heard a lot of good things about “northern capital” of Portugal. But, as we know, impressions – are very subjective thing, and I always try to visit every interesting (and not so interesting too) place by my own. But in this case it was true. I was very impressed by Porto! And right now you could see why.

History of Porto begins at 3th century BC, when here was founded some village. After that it was occupied by The Roman Empire, but they have no interest to develop these far outskirts. So, the first real heyday of Porto was only in the beginning of 12th century; the next one – in the “Age of Discovery”, when Portugal became a one of the world leading countries. Exactly these periods are made a face of Porto.

Porto – it’s a bright representative of South Europe with motives of Nord Africa. You couldn’t find anything similar in the central part of the continent.

Huge historical center amazes with its magnificence. But this magnificence isn’t equal with wealth, I speak about loveliness.

The most famous and authentic element of Portuguese architecture – it is ceramic tiles, which are used as a decoration for buildings facades. I saw a lot of examples, when people came back from Portugal with an inspiration to make something similar with their own houses. Well, here in Germany it always looks incongruously.

Also, in Porto ceramic tiles use not only for historical buildings, but also for fresh-builded.

Yes, mosaics and ornaments are a real cult here.

Central boulevard. You could walk around the city as much as you want, but always come back here.

The only one proper way how to put your advertisement on the historical building: it should follow a style of this building. In Porto even worldwide brands change their logos, and its looks so nice, that I want to photograph it.

Looking at all, Porto is a very religious city: there are dozens of churches everywhere!

Sometimes you could see some Bible stories, which are made from ceramic tiles (hello, nice to meet you again!) on the walls of churches.

Interior of these churches are also has many differences in compare with Central European churches. Here is, for example, a lot a gold – much more, then even in eastern orthodox churches.

Famous book shop and, maybe, one of the most beautiful shops in the world. Entrance costs 5 Euro, but you could use your ticket as a voucher for your purchase.

In Porto you could take a ride on a historic tram.

Dom Luís I Bridge. Many people think that exactly this bridge was made by famous Gustave Eiffel. It is, of course, a mistake. This bridge was made by his learner Théophile Seyrig. There is another bridge, that made by Gustave Eiffel, but it located in Porto suburbs and looks much simpler.

For architecture lovers, Porto is a real treasure! There are a lot of masterpieces of different ages and styles. Among other, there you could meet so rare (for Europe) Art Deco style…

…and much popular Art Nouveau.

But now I want to say you some truth: everything that you have seen before – it is not an “old city” of Porto. Yes, it is a historical part of the city, but in the middle of it you could find a real hearth of Porto.

Here you could find… chickens on the streets.

Did you see these houses? Isn’t a movie? Isn’t a decoration?

In some streets there is no sunlight even in midday. Watch out and catch your wallet!

We go up on the main hill.

There are city cathedral and palace.

How to make a city wall really strong and dangerous? You should put broken bottles on it!

I miss Porto too much. This is the city, where I need to come back again and again.