Loop from Porto

01 Heritage

São Bento railway station

Estação Ferroviária de Porto — São Bento

Built on the site of a Benedictine convent, José Marques da Silva's station opens in the heart of Porto. Stop before its blue azulejos, laid by Jorge Colaço between 1905 and 1906, which tell of the capture of Ceuta and of life in the fields. A coloured frieze also traces the history of transport.

02 Church

Porto Cathedral

Sé do Porto

Approach this Romanesque cathedral which, between its two square towers and beneath its rose window, has kept the look of a fortified church. John I married Philippa of Lancaster here in 1387, and in the 18th century Nicolau Nasoni grafted on a Baroque loggia. In the Gothic cloister, blue azulejos unfold scenes from the Song of Songs.

03 Heritage

Dom Luís I Bridge

Ponte de D. Luís

Designed by Théophile Seyrig, a former partner of Eiffel, this two-deck iron bridge has spanned the Douro between Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia since 1886. Cross it on foot along the top, beside the metro trains. Below, the lower deck, reopened in 2023, now carries only pedestrians, bicycles and public transport.

04 Viewpoint

Gaia Cable Car

Teleférico de Vila Nova de Gaia

Since 2011, the Gaia cable car has linked the port lodge quaysides to the Jardim do Morro, at the foot of the Dom Luís I bridge. Let the cabin glide slowly over 562 metres above the rooftops, time enough to follow the Douro and the façades of Porto on the other bank. In 3 minutes 45, the city unfolds beneath your feet.

05 Monument

Ponte de São Gonçalo

After a flood on the Tâmega swept away the old bridge in 1763, Carlos Amarante designed this one, opened in 1790 on three unequal arches. Sit on the stone benches of its four rounded balconies, between Baroque pinnacles. In 1809, its defenders held out here for 14 days against French troops.

06 Museum

Museu do Douro

In Peso da Régua, this museum occupies the former headquarters of the Upper Douro wine company. The Assembly of the Republic created it in 1997 for the wines of the demarcated region, port first and foremost. Then look out over the terraced vineyards of the Douro, for the museum sees itself as the museum of this whole territory.

07 Viewpoint

Miradouro de São Leonardo de Galafura

08 Church

Chapel of São Pedro de Balsemão

Capela de São Pedro de Balsemão

Pass a façade remodelled in the 17th century, stamped with three coats of arms and attached to the Solar dos Pintos, to find a sanctuary from the early Middle Ages. Inside, three naves rest on horseshoe arches and Corinthian capitals. In the centre, the sarcophagus of Bishop Afonso Pires bears the prelate's statue.

09 Castle

Torre de Ucanha

Standing at the end of a bridge over the Varosa, this twenty-metre square tower guarded the entrance to the lands of the Cistercian monastery of Salzedas. At the foot of the tower, decipher the inscription attributing the work to Fernando, abbot of Salzedas, in 1465. The monks levied a toll on the bridge, and the tower door opens very high above the ground.

10 Church

Mosteiro de São João de Tarouca

In the Varosa valley, this abbey is said to be the first Cistercian house in Portugal, founded in 1140 by a monk sent by Bernard of Clairvaux. Made a parish church in 1834, the Romanesque abbey church keeps Renaissance altars, sculptures and 16th-century ceramics. Look up at the oculus on the façade, where a cross is entwined with ribbons.

11 Heritage

Santuário de Nossa Senhora dos Remédios

Climb, landing after landing, the 686 steps leading to this Baroque sanctuary, to the rhythm of the fountains, chapels and obelisks along the way. On one of the nine terraces, eighteen carved kings of Israel stand motionless guard. At the very top, the granite façade, framed by two bell towers, awaits those who have made it to the end.

12 Village

Pinhão

On the north bank of the Douro, Pinhão lies at the heart of the port wine country, surrounded by quintas with terraced vineyards. Twenty-four blue azulejo panels, commissioned in 1937 from Oliveira, adorn its station with scenes of the river and the grape harvest. Let your gaze climb the schist slopes, row after row, up to the ridges.

13 Village

Provesende

14 Village

Favaios

Perched on the Serra do Vilarelho, Favaios lives to the rhythm of the vine and of a moscatel that bears its name. Try the Quatro Cantos bread too, the pride of the town's bakers. Afonso II granted a charter to this wine village as early as 1211; it was a municipal seat until 1853 and became a vila again in 1991.

15 Viewpoint

Miradouro de Casal de Loivos

16 Viewpoint

Miradouro de São Salvador do Mundo

17 Castle

Castle of Numão

Castelo de Numão

Walk along the walls of the Castelo de Numão, an oval of stone set at 677 metres on a peak, where six of its fifteen towers survive. In the centre lies an open-air circular cistern, and rock-cut tombs mark the eastern slope. The view runs from one castle to the next, as far as Penedono and Castelo Rodrigo.

18 Castle

Castle of Castelo Melhor

Castelo de Castelo Melhor

At 450 metres above sea level, this 13th-century Leonese castle dominates the village, with the Côa to the west and the Douro 2 kilometres to the north. Make out its chipped schist walls, its triple-arched gate and its round tower. Portuguese from 1297, it guarded the disputed frontier of Riba-Côa.

19 Museum

Museu do Côa

20 Village

Pocinho

Stop at Pocinho, where the Linha do Douro now ends, at a listed station on the riverbank. Nearby, the disused bridge of the Linha do Sabor, also protected, stands without trains. Since 2016, a half-buried rowing and canoeing centre designed by Álvaro Fernandes Andrade has blended into the vineyards.

21 Castle

Mateus Palace

Palácio de Mateus

Designed in the 18th century by Nicolau Nasoni, the Mateus Palace is reflected in the pool in front of its main courtyard. Linger over the double flight of stairs, the pinnacles and the two carved guards that enliven its Baroque façade. Behind, a cypress tunnel leads to the terraced gardens.