Why go
Porto's history is easiest to grasp beside the Douro and within the old walled quarter. The river explains the wine trade, while the surviving medieval borough and monuments around it give shape to episodes from Roman commerce through the liberal struggles of the nineteenth century.
The full story
Porto developed as a commercial port in Roman times, on the route between what are now Lisbon and Braga. After the early medieval reconquest, Portus Cale gave its name to the political entity that became Portugal. The Douro later carried wine from the valley to Porto in flat sailing barcos rabelos, while storage and export developed across the river in Gaia. The city also carries the memory of conflict: in 1809, people fleeing French troops died when the pontoon bridge across the Douro collapsed. Porto resisted a lengthy Miguelist siege in 1832–33, earning the name Cidade Invicta, the Unvanquished City. In the historic centre, the medieval borough inside the fourteenth-century Romanesque wall is the clearest physical setting for these layers.