Porto is the second largest city in Portugal and is the city from which the country derived its name.

At its centre is the Praca Da Liberdade a large square that is guarded by a statue of King Dom Pedro the Fourth. The Torre Dos Clerigos is the symbol of Porto and in the middle of the 18th century was built on a rock at the city’s highest point.

Of particular interest is the remarkable external wall toward the east that is decorated with a huge example of the Portuguese art form known as ‘azuelejos’.

The tidal and deep-cut river valley of the Douro is spanned by four bridges of which the most impressive is the iron-built, Ponte Dom Louis. The Frenchman, Gustave Eiffel, constructed this gigantic twin level bridge that connects Porto with its sister town, Vila Nova De Gaia.

Porto is a cultural capital of Europe whose glorious spirit of the past has managed to survive the centuries.