Porto (Oporto): Portugal's historic city on the Douro and home of port wine

The city of Porto is strategically located in the Douro Litoral region of northern Portugal, on the north bank of the Douro River just before it flows into the Atlantic Ocean. Directly across the river is the city of Vila Nova de Gaia, with which Porto is connected by several bridges spanning the valley.

Climate

The climate classification according to Lauer and Frankenberg (1987) assigns the climate of Portugal to the maritime and semihumid climate of the subtropical climate zone. Due to its location directly on the Atlantic Ocean, it is characterized by the temperature behavior of the sea: Not too hot summers and relatively mild winters. Temperatures rarely fall below 0 °C. Snowfalls are even rarer.

The months with the highest rainfall are October to April. The location on the cool Canary Current, which runs south along the coast of Portugal, is decisive. It often causes coastal fog in the warm season. In winter, Porto is often in the sphere of influence of Atlantic low pressure systems, which bring a lot of rain in the coastal area. The sum of the annual precipitation is on average 1267 mm.

Antiquity and Middle Ages

People have settled on this site since the Castro culture. The Greeks built a small trading post here and called it Kalos (Greek for beautiful). The Romans adopted the name as Portus Cale for a Celtic settlement just before the mouth of the Douro into the Atlantic. In 540 the Visigoths made the city a fortress and a bishop's see. The city was ruled by the Moors from 716 to 868 and from 997 to 1050. In the course of the so-called Reconquista, the area finally fell under Christian rule in 1092, initially to the Kingdom of León. The county of Portucale was granted to the crusader Henry of Burgundy as a hereditary fief in 1096/97 - the beginning of the history of Portugal. Porto became one of the starting points of the Reconquista promoted by Afonso I Henriques, the first Portuguese king. In 1370, during the reign of King Ferdinand I, the new, extended and reinforced city fortifications, the Muralhas Fernandinas (Ferdinand Walls), were completed.

Modern Times

In 1703, England and Portugal concluded the Methuen Treaty, which, among other things, granted England the duty-free export of wool cloth to Portugal. In return, Portuguese wines were subject to a duty one third lower than French wines when imported into England. This spurred the cultivation of the wine from the hinterland of Porto, already praised by the Roman historian Marcus Terentius Varro, and its export via the port of Porto. In the 18th century, more and more port wine could be sold in England; from 1717 onwards, numerous English trading houses established branches in Porto. In the second half of the 18th century, at times, up to 15% of Porto's 60,000 inhabitants were English. Today, the boats of the port wine cellars on the Douro still remind of this time, but the boats only have touristic functions.

During the Napoleonic Wars, Porto was occupied by French troops under Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult after the French victory in the Battle of Braga on 20 March 1809 and in the First Battle of Oporto eight days later on 29 March 1809. When the citizens fled the city over the Ponte das Barcas, a ship's bridge built in 1806, it collapsed in front of the soldiers who were advancing with bayonets fixed. Up to 4,000 people met their deaths in the floods of the Douro. The disaster is depicted on the Alminhas da Ponte on the Ribeira. In the Second Battle of Oporto on 12 May 1809, British troops under the Duke of Wellington defeated the French and liberated Oporto.

The Porto tram accident on 10 December 1911 killed 15 people.

Today, Porto is the country's most important industrial and commercial city and a major transport centre, with its textile, leather goods, metal, luxury food and chemical industries, oil refinery, the overseas port of Leixões and Porto International Airport. The University, the Academy of Arts, museums, theatres and the Opera highlight Porto's position as an important cultural and scientific centre of Portugal. The historic centre of Porto, on the north bank of the Douro River, has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1996. The city became famous for its export article, the port wine.