19 Stunning Architecture Landmarks in Porto
19 landmarks with verified facts and stories
Capela das Almas
428 Rua de Santa Catarina, União das freguesias de Cedofeita, Santo Ildefonso, Sé, Miragaia, São Nicolau e Vitória, Porto, 4000-444, Portugal
The Chapel of Souls is a small church on Porto's busiest shopping street that's entirely covered in blue and white azulejo tiles — all four exterior walls, from ground to roofline, wrapped in approximately 15,947 tiles depicting the lives and deaths of various saints with the graphic enthusiasm that 18th-century Portuguese Catholics brought to martyrdom.
Casa da Música
Avenida da Boavista 604-610, Porto
Casa da Música looks like a meteorite landed in a Porto roundabout — a faceted white concrete polyhedron designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas that's been dividing opinion since it opened in 2005.
Clérigos Church
Rua de São Filipe de Nery, Porto
The Clérigos Church is the body attached to the famous tower, and it deserves more than a passing glance on the way to the stairs.
Dom Luís I Bridge
Ponte Luís I, Porto
Dom Luís I Bridge is a double-decker iron arch that looks like it was designed by someone who really admired the Eiffel Tower — and that's because it was.
Igreja de Santo Ildefonso
11 Praça da Batalha, União das freguesias de Cedofeita, Santo Ildefonso, Sé, Miragaia, São Nicolau e Vitória, Porto, 4000-468, Portugal
Santo Ildefonso is the church that stops traffic on Rua de 31 de Janeiro — its entire facade is covered in approximately 11,000 azulejo tiles depicting scenes from the life of Saint Ildefonsus and allegories of the Eucharist, installed in 1932 by Jorge Colaço, the same artist who painted São Bento Station.
Igreja de São Francisco
Rua do Inf D Henrique, União das freguesias de Cedofeita, Santo Ildefonso, Sé, Miragaia, São Nicolau e Vitória, Porto, 4050-296, Portugal
The Church of São Francisco is Gothic on the outside and absolute madness on the inside.
Igreja do Carmo & Igreja dos Carmelitas
Rua do Carmo, Porto
Two churches pressed so close together they share a wall — and the reason is one of the most absurd pieces of Portuguese bureaucracy in history.
Livraria Lello
Rua das Carmelitas 144, Porto
Livraria Lello is regularly called the most beautiful bookshop in the world, and for once the superlative is earned.
Majestic Café
112 Rua de Santa Catarina, União das freguesias de Cedofeita, Santo Ildefonso, Sé, Miragaia, São Nicolau e Vitória, Porto, 4000-442, Portugal
The Café Majestic is Porto's most famous coffee shop and one of the most beautiful cafés in Europe — a Belle Époque interior of carved wood panels, cherub-studded mirrors, marble tables, and leather banquettes that hasn't fundamentally changed since it opened in 1921.
Mercado Bom Sucesso
Praça do Bom Sucesso, União das freguesias de Lordelo do Ouro e Massarelos, Porto, 4150-145, Portugal
Mercado Bom Sucesso is Porto's best example of a traditional market reinvented for the 21st century — a 1950s modernist building with a dramatic arched concrete roof that was renovated in 2013 into a food hall where traditional Portuguese market culture meets contemporary dining.
Mercado do Bolhão
Rua Formosa 322, Porto
Bolhão is Porto's grand old market — a two-storey Neoclassical building that's been the city's primary fresh food market since 1914, and the place where Porto's grandmothers still come to buy tripe, bacalhau, and the flowers for Sunday lunch.
Palácio da Bolsa
Rua de Ferreira Borges, União das freguesias de Cedofeita, Santo Ildefonso, Sé, Miragaia, São Nicolau e Vitória, Porto, 4050-252, Portugal
The Palácio da Bolsa — Porto's Stock Exchange Palace — was built to impress foreign traders, and 150 years later it's still working.
Ponte da Arrábida
Ponte da Arrábida, União das freguesias de Lordelo do Ouro e Massarelos, Porto, 4150-553, Portugal
The Arrábida Bridge is a single concrete arch spanning 270 metres across the Douro, and when it was completed in 1963 it was the longest concrete arch bridge in the world.
Porto Cathedral (Sé do Porto)
Terreiro da Sé, Porto
Porto's cathedral looks like a fortress because it basically is one.
Praça da Liberdade & Avenida dos Aliados
Praça da Liberdade, União das freguesias de Cedofeita, Santo Ildefonso, Sé, Miragaia, São Nicolau e Vitória, Porto, 4000-322, Portugal
Avenida dos Aliados is Porto's grandest street — a broad, sloping boulevard lined with early 20th-century buildings that was designed to give the city a Parisian-style civic centre.
Rua das Flores
Rua das Flores, Porto
Rua das Flores — Street of Flowers — is Porto's prettiest pedestrian street and the one that best captures the city's current moment: historic buildings being lovingly restored, excellent restaurants moving into ground floors that were shuttered for decades, and a quality of street life that feels authentically Portuguese rather than manufactured for tourists.
São Bento Railway Station
Praça de Almeida Garrett, Porto
São Bento is a working railway station that doubles as one of the finest azulejo galleries in Portugal.
Serralves Museum & Park
Rua Dom João de Castro 210, Porto
Serralves is Porto's answer to having both world-class contemporary art and a park beautiful enough to make you forget you're in a city.
Torre dos Clérigos
Rua de São Filipe de Nery, Porto
The Clérigos Tower is Porto's exclamation mark — a 76-metre Baroque bell tower that dominates the skyline and has been the city's most recognisable landmark since it was completed in 1763.
Explore architecture in Porto
GPS-guided narration at every landmark. Tap a spot on the map, hear the story. Every fact verified.