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Welcome to Portocityguide.com! Here you will find an insider's guide to all things Porto -- plus tips on what to visit in the Douro wine region and Northern Portugal more generally. Our goal is to be the most comprehensive, selective, reliable, and independent source of online information on what Porto has to offer! If you enjoy what you find here, you may want to consider subscribing to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

The Palacio da Bolsa (pa-lah-SEE-oo dah BOL-sa) is the most-visited attraction in Porto, with more than 200,000 visitors each year. Its heavy neoclassical façade hides quite a few gems inside. The building is the headquarters of Porto’s merchants guild, and was designed with the purpose of showcasing Porto’s commercial prosperity and impressing visiting businessmen. It is located in Praca do Infante, the main square of the Ribeira neighborhood, a World Heritage Site. Construction started in 1842, and included works by the most renowned nineteenth-century architects, painters, sculptors, and furniture makers of Northern Portugal. It displays a variety of styles, from austere Tuscan architecture to nineteenth-century neoclassicism — including Arabian polychromatic and English neopalatial styles. You can find a floor-plan of the palace with links to panoramic views of each of the main rooms here.

Inside, you’ll find what is by far the most interesting interior in Porto. Its main attractions are the Arabian Room and the Hall of Nations.

The Arabian Room is where most receptions for foreign dignitaries visiting Porto are held. No images do justice to its spectacular colors, so you’ll have to see the room for yourself. (You can get a good sense of how it looks, though, by following the link to a panoramic image from 360 Portugal at the top of this review.) Built between 1862 and 1880, it is inspired by moorish-style buildings in Al-Aldaluz — the south of Spain, which was under Muslim rule until 1492. Lavish detailed decorations in plaster, wood, and gold leaf cover each square inch of wall and ceiling with Arabian motifs. The background is red and aquamarine, with an over-layer of inscriptions in Arabic extolling Allah. All windows are in stained glass, with additional Arabian themes.

The other great space is the Hall of Nations (panoramic image from 360 Portugal linked below), which was once an open-air cloister, and now has a glass-and-metal dome. It is decorated with the coats of arms of Portugal and its twenty most important trade partners in the early nineteenth century. The floor is decorated with tiles inspired by those in the ill-fated Roman city of Pompeii. The floor of the Porto Stock Exchange operated here till the mid-1990s.

Guided tours take you through other rooms that, though not as exquisite as these two, are not a waste of time either. Among these, the nicest are the library, the president’s room (decorated with mid-nineteenth century furniture in the first-empire style, using the best Portuguese and Brazilian woods), the board of directors room (also called the golden room because of the gilded carvings on the walls and ceiling, imitating bronze, gold, and wood, but which are actually made of plaster), the portrait room (featuring full-body portraits of the last six Portuguese monarchs before the 1910 republican revolution — all the constitutional monarchs), and the court room (in the French renaissance style, with large oil-painted panels on the walls).

Throughout the tour, pay attention to the floors, which feature some of the most beautiful wooden parquetry anywhere in the world (Brazilian exotic wood was important in Porto’s trade), with dizzying designs including a 3D trompe l’oeil stairway.

The Palacio da Bolsa has a great agenda of performances, exhibitions, auctions, and other stuff happening most of the time, so check their website if you want to attend (or avoid) a particular event.

Inside the palace there is also a restaurant, O Comercial, which is well worth mentioning. It offers contemporary Portuguese cuisine with an international twist, all in an elegant setting. Right next to it, you’ll find The Essence of Porto, a small port-wine shop with a great selection of ports — and a nice, quiet tasting room.

Price point: guided tours are 5 euros for adults; 3 for children. No visits beyond outside tours. No photography is allowed inside the palace, so you’ll probably end up buying some postcards in the gift shop.

Address: Rua Ferreira Borges, Porto.

Phone: (+351) 22.339.9000.

Website: http://www.palaciodabolsa.pt/

Opening hours: between November and March, open seven days a week 9:00am-1:00pm and 2:00pm-6:00pm; April through October, open from 9:00am to 7:00pm uninterruptedly. The Essencia do Vinho wine bar is open daily from 10:00am to 7:00pm. The restaurant — O Comercial — is open Monday through Friday 12:00-3:00pm and 8:00-11:00pm (till Midnight on Fridays).

Getting there: if you are driving from downtown Porto, the easiest way of getting there is to take Rua Mouzinho da Silveira down to Praca do Infante. Park there in the underground parking lot. Once you’ve walked back up to the street level, Palacio da Bolsa is the large stone building on the Western side of the square. If you’re not driving, walking from downtown should take you 10 minutes, and a taxi should take about 5 minutes.

For more wonderful Quicktime VR panoramic image of Palacio da Bolsa, click here. The link will take you to a map of the Palacio on 360 Portugal, a comprehensive archive of panoramic images of Portugal. As always, many thanks to Santiago Ribas, the man behind the camera.

Clerigos Tower (KLE-ree-goosh) is the ex libris of Porto. Designed by Tuscan architect Niccolo Nasoni in 1754 and completed nine years later, the tower is one of the best examples of the baroque style in Portugal. At the time of completion, it was also the tallest building in the country. The tower is 76 meters (249 feet) high. Its design is inspired by the Tuscan campaniles to which Nasoni was used. Since it is located at the top of one of the hills delimiting downtown, the view from the top of Clerigos Tower is one of the best of Porto. Adjacent to the tower is Clerigos Church, a slightly older (1732) building also in the Italianate baroque style.

Your way to the top will involve climbing 225 steps, but the view is well-worth the effort. In fact, it is the best overview of downtown Porto short of a helicopter tour. You can see the whole of downtown, as well as the Douro bridges, and the port wine cellars on the south margin. The faint of heart should stay home (or at the hotel), however. The steps in the long spiral narrow stairway are not uniform and, with all the climbing and descending, the stone is very smooth. Two observation platforms provide opportunities to rest on your way to the top.

On the inside, the tower is separated from the church by a thick curtain. The interior of the church is painted in light pink and gold colors and the altar is carved in polychromed marble.

The main facade of the church (facing downhill) is heavily decorated with typical baroque motifs, such as garlands and shells, based on an early seventeenth century Roman scheme. The lateral facades show the eliptic floorplan of the church nave.

Nicolau Nasoni, who was responsible for many other works in Northern Portugal, loved his Clerigos Tower so much he asked to be inducted into the Clerigos religious order and is buried in the church.

Price point: entrance to the Tower costs 1 euro; there is no charge to enter the Church.

Address: Rua de S. Filipe Nery, Porto.

Phone: (+351) 22.200.1729.

Website: unavailable.

Opening hours: in the winter, the Tower is open Thursday to Tuesday from 10:30am to noon and from 2:30 to 5:00pm. In the summer, it opens from 9:30am to 1:00pm and from 2:30 to 7:00pm. In August, the Tower is open uninterruptedly from 10:00am to 7:00pm.

Getting there: Clerigos Tower is a five-minute walk from downtown Porto. If you are at the bottom of Praca da Liberdade / Avenida dos Aliados (the two together form the large square in front of City Hall) facing City Hall, turn left and start climbing the street — Rua dos Clerigos. The Tower is at the top; you can’t miss it. If you’re driving, the closest parking lot is the underground parking facility on Praca dos Leoes, so drive past the bookstore and follow the parking signs when you reach the top of the street.

For wonderful Quicktime VR panoramic images of Clerigos Tower, click on the large images above. The link will take you to 360 Portugal, a comprehensive archive of panoramic images of Portugal. While you’re at it, you may want to see more of downtown Porto by following the links in the detailed maps of Porto available on that website, including map A4 (Vitoria). As always, many thanks to Santiago Ribas, the man behind the camera.