Discover the historic sights of the Ribeira with a walk around Porto old town – a UNESCO World Heritage site in Portugal with colourful buildings cascading down the hillside towards the River Duoro.
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Porto is Portugal’s second-largest city, a modern metropolis home to 230,000 people, but the city’s heart still lies in its medieval old city – Porto Ribeira. This historic district begins along the banks of the River Douro and spreads up into the hills behind it.
As one of Porto’s oldest neighbourhoods, walking the Ribeira’s streets is a step back in time. Its colourful houses and maze of medieval alleys have helped make the this the city’s most visited district, but you can still lose yourself – and everyone else – in Porto Ribeira.
Discovering Porto old town
Straddling the River Duoro, the arching iron Dom Luís I bridge dominates Porto’s waterfront. Porto is known as the ‘city of bridges’ and this is one of six which link it to the Vila Nova de Gaia on the opposite bank, where many port lodges are based.
The Dom Luís bridge is an imposing sight, whether you’re looking at it or looking out from the top of its 45-metre-high arch. It was built by Téophile Seyrig. He was the business partner of France’s Gustav Eiffel, who’d already worked with him on the similar-looking Maria Pia Bridge in Porto – which was Eiffel’s last project before his Tower.
The bridge stretches over 170 metres between the river banks and was the longest arch bridge in the world when it opened in 1886. It has two different levels – one on top of the arch and one below. The lower level is used by cars and the upper one by metro trains. It also has a pedestrian walkway with fantastic views across Porto and Gaia.
From the top of the bridge you get a bird’s-eye view of the Ribeira, with its dense maze of streets and red-roofed buildings, and I couldn’t wait to get down there to explore.
Near the base of the bridge you can see the Alminhas da Ponte, a shrine to people killed in the Bridge of Boats tragedy. Before the Dom Luís bridge was built, the only way you could cross the Duoro was on a makeshift pontoon made of 20 boats tied together.
This was known as the Ponte das Barcas or Bridge of Boats. You can still see some of the old bridge’s pillars near the base of the Dom Luís bridge. But on 29 March 1809, when Porto was being attacked during the Peninsula Wars, there was a huge rush of people trying to escape over the bridge. This sank the boats and up to 4000 people drowned.
Near the bridge you’ll see the traditional rabelo wooden barges which are one of the most famous symbols of Porto. These flat-bottomed boats were originally used to transport barrels of port from vineyards in the Douro Valley to the cellars in Vila Nova de Gaia.
Today port is transported by road instead, but the rabelos are still in use for sightseeing trips – you can take an hour-long Douro cruise* from the Ribeira to see the six bridges. And on June 24 each year there’s a rabelo race as part of the Festa de São João.
On an unseasonably warm, sunny February afternoon, the cafés and restaurants that line the waterfront Cais da Ribeira were packed. We took a walk along to the main riverfront square, the Praça da Ribeira (Ribeira Square), which is surrounded by tall narrow buildings covered in tiles glazed in shades of red, yellow, green and blue.
The square is filled with café tables which are overflowing with tourists by day and party-goers well into the night. But if you move away from the bustle of the square by just a few streets, it’s like you’ve suddenly stepped back a few centuries in time.
The Ribeira has been Porto’s commercial centre ever since the Roman period, when the shipping port which gave the city its name was set up here. Over the next 2000 years it grew into a major hub for shipments of goods from across the world.
Grand warehouses sprung up along the waterside, and it’s the mix of architecture which developed over the years that’s why it’s now listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. But the Ribeira has a feeling of decaying grandeur, with many of the elegant buildings that cascade down the hillside towards the river falling into disrepair over the years.
From the Praça da Ribeira, we headed up steep stone stairs cut into the hillside. Paths twist and turn through narrow alleyways and buildings towering above block out the light. It doesn’t take long to get disorientated, but that’s the best way to see the Ribeira.
In the 1960s, many buildings in the Ribeira were left to crumble as younger residents left Porto old town for the seaside suburbs. At its worst it was estimated that a fifth of the Ribeira’s buildings had been abandoned. But a growth in tourism has meant investment has flowed into the area, and buildings are being restored and redeveloped.
Though being a UNESCO World Heritage site means the layout and medieval buildings have to be preserved, so repairing the Ribeira is a slow and expensive process.
The Ribeira is home to the ornate São Bento train station, where flashes of blue and white through the doorway drew us into a huge light-filled hall, covered with floor-to-ceiling blue and white tiles. These painted ceramic tiles or azulejos cover the fronts of churches and houses across Portugal, but these are some of the most impressive.
There are over 20,000 individual tiles covering the station walls, which make up pictures of battles, coronations and other major events in Portuguese history. They were painted by Jorge Colaço, one of the most famous azulejo artists. He started work on the station’s tiles in 1905 and finally finished them eleven long years of painting later.
Also look out for the Casa do Infante, the city’s oldest and only royal building where Prince Henry the Navigator was born in 1394. Inside is a museum where you can find out about his life as well as the building’s past uses as a customs house and royal mint.
Other places to visit in the Ribeira are the Palácio da Bolsa (Hall of Nations). This grand Neoclassical building has ornately decorated rooms, including the gilded Arabian Hall. Continuing the golden theme is the Igreja de São Francisco (St Francis Church), which is decorated with 100kg of gold leaf. It also has catacombs below to explore.
But a lot of the charm of the Ribeira is its more everyday sights. Washing lines draped with drying clothes stretch across alleyways, wrought-iron balconies are filled to bursting with plant pots, and satellite dishes are precariously perched on tiled frontages.
And then you come across hidden spots, like a tiny neighbourhood restaurant tucked down a side street. Or a Baroque church, simple on the outside but decorated with paintings and statues inside. Or a viewpoint where the buildings drop away and you can see out over terracotta-tiled rooftops across the city, down to the Duoro and towards the sea.
The details
Where to stay in Porto Ribeira
If you’re looking for luxury in the heart of Porto old town, the five-star Pestana Vintage Porto* is right on the Praça da Ribeira, so you couldn’t be closer to the action. A group of colourful 16th-century warehouses have been converted into a hotel, with some rooms overlooking the Dom Luís bridge. There’s also a restaurant and multiple bars.
The Ribeira Douro Hotel* is located down in a quiet alleyway in the Ribeirinha area. It’s built from two historic buildings and has a mix of standard, superior and large double rooms (some with balconies), plus a duplex apartment sleeping three. All rooms are different, decorated in a calm, neutral style, and a breakfast buffet is included.
Or My Ribeira Guest House* is a few minutes uphill from the river. The building dates from 1834 but has been refurbished in a bright, modern style with a focus on sustainability. There’s a mix of studios and apartments with kitchenettes, plus an in-house café.
Where to eat and drink in Porto Ribeira
Head to one of the bars next to the Dom Luís bridge for sunset – Bar da Ponte Pênsil is undeniably touristy but it has a perfect position right on the water’s edge.
There’s row of restaurants along the riverside, but some of the best places to eat are tucked away in the Ribeira’s side streets. Try Taberna Dos Mercadores for stylishly presented seafood dishes. Escondidinho do Barredo is a traditional tavern serving local specialities like fried cuttlefish. Or Estômago does delicious Portuguese tapas and natural wines.
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