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Top choice
Sitting atop a bluff, this gorgeous botanical garden is one of Porto's best-loved escapes, with lawns interwoven with sun-dappled paths and dotted with fountains, sculptures, giant magnolias, camellias, cypress and olive trees. It's actually a mosaic of small gardens that open up little by little as you wander – as do the stunning views of the city and Rio Douro.
The park is also home to a domed sports pavilion, the hi-tech Biblioteca Municipal Almeida Garrett and the Museu Romântico.
0.72 MILES
Igreja de São Francisco looks from the outside to be an austerely Gothic church, but inside it hides one of Portugal’s most dazzling displays of baroque…
1.93 MILES
This fabulous cultural institution combines a museum, a mansion and extensive gardens. Cutting-edge exhibitions, along with a fine permanent collection…
0.83 MILES
From Praça da Ribeira rises a tangle of medieval alleys and stairways that eventually reach the hulking, hilltop fortress of the cathedral. Founded in the…
Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis
0.22 MILES
Porto's best art museum presents a stellar collection ranging from Neolithic carvings to Portugal’s take on modernism, all housed in the formidable…
0.7 MILES
This splendid neoclassical monument (built from 1842 to 1910) honours Porto’s past and present money merchants. Just past the entrance is the glass-domed…
0.78 MILES
At once minimalist, iconic and daringly imaginative, the Casa da Música is the beating heart of Porto's cultural scene and the home of the Porto National…
0.81 MILES
One of the world's most beautiful train stations, beaux arts São Bento wings you back to a more graceful age of rail travel. Completed in 1903, it seems…
29.6 MILES
Braga’s extraordinary cathedral, the oldest in Portugal, was begun when the archdiocese was restored in 1070 and completed in the following century. It’s…
0.16 MILES
Nestled on the southern slopes of Jardins do Palácio de Cristal, beneath cathedral oaks and sycamores, is the small but stately home where the exiled king…
2. Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis
0.22 MILES
Porto's best art museum presents a stellar collection ranging from Neolithic carvings to Portugal’s take on modernism, all housed in the formidable…
3. Igreja do Corpo Santo de Massarelos
0.31 MILES
Rising above the riverfront with a facade adorned in blue-and-white azulejos (hand-painted tiles), this church was built in 1776 on the site of a chapel…
0.37 MILES
A guaranteed kid-pleaser – if slightly overpriced – this interactive museum catapults you back to the 14th to 16th centuries, when the Portuguese ruled…
0.38 MILES
Housed in an antiquated switching-house, this museum is a tram-spotter's delight. It displays dozens of beautifully restored old trams – from early 1870s…
0.39 MILES
Set in the 19th-century riverside customs house, this museum traces the motorcar from its inception to the future. It does the same for radio and…
0.44 MILES
This new 5D cinema whisks you on a virtual flight over Porto, revealing angles never seen at ground level, with added special effects such as motion seats…
8. Igreja de São Pedro de Miragaia
0.47 MILES
One of Porto's oldest churches, the medieval Igreja de São Pedro de Miragaia was completely rebuilt in the 17th and 18th centuries, and pays homage to St…