PORTO

Portuguese Oporto, capital and port, Porto distrito ("district"), northern Portugal. The city lies along the Douro River, 2 miles (3 km) from the river's mouth and 175 miles (280 km) north of Lisbon. World-famous for its port wine, Porto is Portugal's second largest city and is the commercial and industrial centre for the zone north of the Mondego River. The city lies chiefly on the Douro River's north (right) bank, sprawling outward from the older riverside district known as the Ribeira. The historic centre of Porto was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996. The red-tiled warehouses of the town of Vila Nova de Gaia, where vast quantities of port wine are blended and stored, are on the south bank of the Douro; other suburbs include Matosinhos, Lea da Palmeira, and Aguas Santas to the north and Gondomar and Oliveira do Douro to the southeast. The Douro River is spanned in central Porto by the Dom Lus I Bridge (591 feet [180 metres]), built in 1881-85 by the French engineer Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, with one of the largest arches in Europe; the Maria Pia Bridge (1876-77), carrying the Lisbon railway line; and the Arrbida Highway Bridge (885 feet [270 metres]), which had the world's longest arch when it was completed in 1962. Porto was the Portus Cale of Roman times and was earlier a flourishing settlement on the Douro's south bank; the nomadic Alani tribe later founded the city of Castrum Novum on the north bank. The Visigoths took possession of the site about AD 540 but yielded in 716 to the Moors. In 997 Christian forces recaptured Porto, which for a time became the capital of the counts of Portucalense (of northern Portugal) during Moorish rule in the southern part of the kingdom. The Moors again held the city briefly, but in 1092 it was brought finally under Christian domination. In the 14th century the city became an important port, and Prince Henry the Navigator was born there in 1394. During the Peninsular War British forces under Arthur Wellesley (later the duke of Wellington) there crossed the Douro, routed the French, and captured the city on May 12, 1809. Porto's cathedral, on the site of the Visigothic citadel, was originally a 12th-century Romanesque building with 14th-century Gothic cloisters, but it was largely rebuilt in the 17th-18th century. The Romanesque and early Gothic Church of So Martinho de Cedofeita, notable for the curiously carved capitals of its pillars, occupies the site of a church said to have been built by Theodomir, king of the Visigoths, in 559 to receive St. Martin of Tours's relics from France. Also notable are the Torre dos Clrigos, an 18th-century granite tower, 246 feet (75 metres) high; the Gothic Basilica of So Francisco (from 1410); and the stock exchange, with its ornately designed Salo Arabe ("Arabic Hall"; 19th century). An episcopal see, Porto has a university (founded 1911), district archives, museums including the Soares do Reis National Museum (prehistoric and Roman artifacts, sculpture, paintings, and numismatics), an opera house, a fine-arts school, a symphony orchestra, and several scientific institutes. Modern public buildings include the county hall, university hospital, and football (soccer) stadium. Porto is chiefly famous for the export of the wine named for it, which is a popular dessert wine with a rich, sweet flavour. The trade in port was begun in 1678 and was firmly established under the terms of the Methuen Treaty (1703) between England and Portugal. An act of 1906 defined port as a wine produced in the Douro district and exported from Porto with an alcoholic strength of more than 16.5 percent. A sizable proportion of the population is engaged in manufacturing, and fisheries are also important. Just northwest of Porto, on the Atlantic coast in Matosinhos, is the deepwater artificial Porto de Leixes. The population density of Porto is only slightly less than that of Lisbon, and overcrowding is common, although large-scale planning and residential development improved conditions in the latter part of the 20th century. Porto has a domestic airport. The coastal railroad, running beside the coastal expressway, is electrified between Porto and Lisbon. A highway and railroad also extend east to Bragana. The Crestuma hydroelectric project on the Douro River is located about 19 miles (30 km) from the city. Porto district has an area of 904 square miles (2,341 square km). It comprises a narrow coastal plain stretching from the Ave River valley to south of the Douro River, an inland undulating plateau, and an eastern mountainous section traversed by northwest-southeast valleys, notably that of the Tmega River. The mild, moist climate and generally fertile soils have encouraged an intensive use of land. Mixed farming, including winter and summer cereals, vegetables, and tree crops (cork oak and olive), permits large peasant families to live on small holdings fragmented into tiny parcels, some less than an acre in size. Timber and its associated resin industry are, with the production of vinho verde (an acidic, slightly effervescent wine), often the only sources of cash income for the peasants in the remoter valleys. Pop. (1981) city and concelho ("township"), 335,916; distrito, 1,561,310; (1991 prelim.) city, 310,600; (1993 est.) distrito, 1,652,000.