Porto's culture is layered like its hills: Nasoni's Italian baroque above medieval granite, azulejo panels covering entire church façades, and a Koolhaas concert hall dropped into a 19th-century square. Three days of museums, ateliers and live music.
Álvaro Siza's 1999 contemporary art museum sits in an 18-hectare park beside the 1930s pink Art Deco Casa de Serralves. Open 10:00–19:00 (from 10:00 weekends). Combined park-and-museum ticket covers rotating exhibitions and the Treetop Walk.
Portugal's national architecture centre occupies a converted Real Vinícola wine warehouse complex, holding the archives of Siza Vieira and Souto de Moura. Exhibitions run in the long brick naves; the reading room holds original drawings and models.
Siza's 1963 tea house is bolted into the coastal rocks north of Matosinhos, his first major commission and a national monument. The low copper roof and teak interiors frame the Atlantic; you can walk the granite terraces around it without a reservation.
Nicolau Nasoni's 1750 baroque church and its 75-metre granite bell tower, the tallest in Portugal. The 240 steps end at a balcony ringing the belfry; the church nave below is an oval, unusual for Portuguese baroque, with Nasoni buried inside.
Rem Koolhaas's 2005 faceted white concrete shell houses the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto. Guided tours at 10:00 and 11:00 in English enter the Sala Suggia shoebox hall, the corrugated-glass walls and the azulejo-lined VIP room.
The 1914 neoclassical market reopened in 2022 after a full restoration, its two-tier iron-and-granite galleries back in use by fishmongers, tripe sellers and flower stalls. The upper balcony tascas serve francesinha and bifana at counter prices.
Portugal's first national art museum, founded 1833 in the neoclassical Palácio dos Carrancas. Holds António Soares dos Reis's marble 'O Desterrado' (1872), Henrique Pousão's paintings, and Portuguese decorative arts. Closed Mondays.
The 1920 beaux-arts theatre by Marques da Silva replaced the Teatro Baquet, which burned down in 1908. It anchors Porto's theatre scene with Portuguese-language drama and hosts the FITEI international festival each June.
Two of Porto's great tile façades: the Igreja do Carmo's 1912 side wall by Silvestre Silvestri, and the Capela das Almas on Rua de Santa Catarina, clad in 15,947 blue tiles laid in 1929 showing the deaths of St Francis and St Catherine.
A single street holding Porto's contemporary galleries — Presença, Fernando Santos, Nuno Centeno — plus the CCB Bombarda arcade of independent shops. All galleries open new shows simultaneously five or six Saturdays a year.
The 18th-century granite courthouse and prison where Camilo Castelo Branco was jailed in 1860 now holds a photography centre. Cells stay intact around the courtyard; the top floor displays several hundred historic cameras. Admission is free.
A workshop and shop for Portuguese guitars that runs intimate fado evenings in its stone-vaulted back room, roughly 25 seats, with a luthier explaining the instrument's twelve strings before the singing starts.