Cities we love: Porto (Portugal) by feature reporter Jens Hoffmann

Bom dia Porto

Porto has always had its granite, its churches, its port wine and its river. What feels different now is the energy around them.

There is a tangible air of purpose in the city. New restaurants appear in old buildings. Wine weeks and food festivals have joined the traditional calendar. Galleries and independent shops are finding new audiences. The city is not abandoning its past so much as finding new ways to inhabit it.

That makes Porto particularly rewarding for a few days.

You can spend a morning moving through centuries of history, stop for an exceptional lunch, discover a contemporary gallery in the afternoon and end the evening with a cocktail on a crowded street. The old city provides the setting; the new Porto supplies the momentum.

Begin around noon at the market, then walk to Café Majestic, the Belle Époque institution on Rua de Santa Catarina. Opened in 1921, it was once a meeting place for writers and artists. Its ornate interior still carries something of that literary past, even as the tables outside provide an excellent perch for watching the city pass.

Across the street, the Palladium Galleries Clock offers a small piece of theatricality. On the hour, four figures emerge as the clock chimes: two Portuguese poets, Prince Henry the Navigator, associated with Portugal’s Age of Discovery, and St. John the Baptist, Porto’s patron saint.

Then follow the river.

The Douro has always been central to Porto’s identity, carrying wine toward the Atlantic and dividing the city from Vila Nova de Gaia. Today, it remains one of the best ways to understand the city: slowly, from the water, with the hills rising on either side.

For lunch, turn back toward the city and find the Wine Bar at Matriarca, the three-story townhouse opened by the Symington family, whose history in Portuguese port and wine stretches across five generations.

The house takes its name from Beatriz, the Anglo-Portuguese matriarch whose dinners were once legendary. On the ground floor, the cooking is deliberately lighter than the name “Porto” might suggest: sea bass carpaccio with lemon, pistachios and avocado, alongside beef croquettes that speak more directly to Portuguese tradition.

Look at the tiles beneath your feet before sitting down.

At the Chapel of Souls, the building itself becomes a kind of ceramic manuscript. Its façade is covered in blue-and-white azulejos depicting scenes from the lives of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Catherine of Alexandria.

A short walk away, São Bento railway station offers another lesson in the city’s relationship with tile. More than 20,000 painted ceramic tiles cover the station’s entrance hall, transforming a place of transit into one of Porto’s great public artwork paired best with Arinto.

Porto has several memorable bookshops, including one whose elaborate staircase has acquired almost mythical status among visitors. Its resemblance to a fantasy film set has made it a pilgrimage for Harry Potter fans, although the shop is worth visiting even if you have never opened a book by J.K. Rowling.

The city’s retail culture extends well beyond books. At Vista Alegre, Portuguese porcelain and glass take centre stage. Bordallo Pinheiro offers ceramics that are more playful, including the cabbage-leaf designs that have become instantly recognizable.

For a quieter, more contemporary aesthetic, look to Costa Nova, whose restrained ceramics have found their way into stylish homes well beyond Portugal.

And then there is Claus Porto.

The Portuguese soap and fragrance house has its flagship on Rua das Flores, where the packaging is almost as seductive as the products. Try Alto Mar, inspired by the Atlantic, and leave with several soaps wrapped in the brand’s exuberant Art Nouveau papers.

Dinner is another opportunity to see how Porto is changing.

At Cozinha das Flores, traditional northern Portuguese cooking is given a contemporary interpretation. Even the pastel de nata refuses to behave as expected: instead of the familiar custard filling, it comes with turnip and caviar.

The cooking is thoughtful without becoming self-conscious, and the room, with its open fire and kitchen, encourages the sort of long dinner that makes schedules irrelevant.

Next door, Bar Sibling spills onto the pavement. It is an ideal place to watch Porto’s evening crowd gather. One cocktail, Clichéd, plays knowingly with Portuguese flavours, including cod and coriander. Relish brings a deeper, umami-driven character.

There is an old Portuguese saying: In Braga, they pray; in Coimbra, they study; in Porto, they work; and in Lisbon, they play.

The stereotype is appealing, but Porto has no shortage of churches.

São Francisco is perhaps the most extraordinary. Classified as a National Monument in 1910, it is no longer used for worship, but its interior remains a spectacular display of gilded Baroque decoration.

From there, climb toward Clérigos.

Nicolau Nasoni’s 18th-century tower rises 75 metres above the city. From the top, the view explains much about Porto’s geography: the tightly packed historic centre, the red roofs, the Douro below and, beyond it all, the Atlantic.

Porto Cathedral, dating to the 12th century, provides another glimpse into the city’s layered history. It has been altered repeatedly, but its medieval character survives in details including the 13th-century rose window and blue-and-white tiled sections.

For a more ambitious dinner, Pedro Lemos remains one of my favourites.

There is a welcome lack of theatre. In an era when fine dining can sometimes become an elaborate performance, the pleasure here comes from the food itself: Portuguese flavours handled with precision and confidence.

It is simply very good cooking.

Save the afternoon for Serralves.

The museum, designed by Álvaro Siza Vieira, sits in an elegant park that deserves as much time as the galleries. Walk the treetop path. Look for the sculptures scattered through the grounds. Let the landscape slow you down.

Serralves is one of those places where architecture, art and landscape seem to have been conceived as a single experience.

For contemporary art, continue to Miguel Bombarda Street, where galleries, studios and independent shops have helped establish the neighbourhood as one of Porto’s creative centres. It is particularly good territory for prints, illustration and smaller works that can travel home in a suitcase.

Toward the coast.

Casa de Chá da Boa Nova, designed by Siza Vieira, sits almost impossibly close to the Atlantic. The restaurant appears to emerge from the rocks, while waves break below the windows.

Chef Rui Paula’s cooking has earned the restaurant two Michelin stars, but the setting is what stays with you.

Go before sunset.

As the light fades, the Atlantic becomes the final course: grey, silver and then almost black beyond the glass.

This is the Porto worth discovering now — a city comfortable with its history but no longer defined solely by it. The granite remains. The azulejos remain. The river remains.

But something else is happening here.

The city is moving forward.

Boa sorte, Porto.