Fig. 195.—OPORTO AND THE PAIZ DO VINHO.

Scale 1 : 1,000,000.

Northern Portugal may be described as the cradle of the existing kingdom, and it was Porto Cale, on the site of Villanova de Gaia, the southern suburb of Oporto, which gave a name to all Lusitania. At Lamego, to the south of the Douro, the Cortes met, according to tradition, in 1143, and constituted the new kingdom of which Oporto became the capital. When the country recovered its independence after the short dominion of Spain, the Dukes of Bragança were invested with the regal power. Though Lisbon occupies a more central position than Oporto, the latter frequently takes the initiative in political movements, and the success of any revolution is said to depend upon the side taken by the energetic population of the north. If we may accept the estimate of the Portuenses, they are morally and physically the superiors of the Lisbonenses. They alone are the true sons of the great people whose vessels ploughed the ocean during the age of discoveries, and there can be no doubt that their gait is more determined, their speech and their glance more open, than those of the inhabitants of the capital. In vulgar parlance, people of Oporto and Lisbon are known as tripeiros and alfasinhos; that is, tripe and lettuce eaters.

OPORTO.

Porto, or O Porto, the “Port” par excellence, is the natural capital of Northern Lusitania, the second city of Portugal on account of its population and commerce, the first in manufactures. As seen from the banks of the Douro, here hardly {479} more than 200 yards in width, and spanned by a magnificent railway bridge, it rises like a double amphitheatre, whose summits are crowned by the cathedral and the belfry dos Clerigos, and the narrow valley separating them covered with houses. The lower town has broad streets, intersecting each other at right angles, but the streets climbing the hills are narrow and tortuous, and even stairs have frequently to be ascended in order to reach the more elevated quarters of the town. Cleanliness is attended to throughout, and the citizens are most anxious in that respect to insure the praises of their numerous English visitors. Gaia, a long suburb, occupies the opposite side of the river. It abounds in factories and storehouses, and its vast cellars are stated on an average to contain 80,000 pipes of wine. Beautiful walks extend along the river bank and its terraces, and the long reaches of the stream are covered with shipping, and fringed with gardens and villas. The hills in the distance are crowned with ancient convents, fortifications, and villages half hidden amongst verdure. Avintes, famous for the beauty of its women, who supply the town daily with broa, or maize bread, is one of them. Suburbs extend along both banks of the river in the direction of the sea. The river at its mouth is only two fathoms in depth during low water, and dangerous of access when the wind blows from the west. Even at Oporto vessels of 400 or 500 tons are exposed to danger from sudden floods of the river, which cause them to drag their anchors. The port of the Douro has therefore to contend with great difficulties in its rivalry with Lisbon.[175]

The small town of São João da Foz, at the mouth of the Douro, has a lighthouse, but carries on no commerce. Near it are Mattozinhos and Leça, the latter of which boasts of an ancient monastery resembling a fortress, and is much frequented on account of its fine beach and refreshing sea breezes. Espinho, to the south of the Douro, is another favourite seaside resort, in spite of the all-pervading smell of sardines. The small ports to the north of the Douro are frequented only by coasting vessels or by seaside visitors. The entrance to the Minho is defended by the castle of Insua, on a small island, as its name implies, and by the insignificant fortress of Caminha. The river is accessible only to vessels drawing less than six feet. The mouth of the Lima, though even more difficult of access, is nevertheless occupied by a town of some importance—coquettish Vianna do Castello, beautifully ensconced amidst the verdure of its fertile plain. Other towns are Espozende, at the mouth of the Cávado, and Villa do Conde, at that of the Ave. Formerly most of the vessels engaged in the slave trade and those employed in the great maritime enterprises of the Portuguese were built here, and it still boasts of a few ship-yards.

Amongst the inland towns of Entre Douro e Minho are Ponte de Lima, famous for the beauty of the surrounding country; Barcellos, overhanging the shady banks of the Cávado; and Amarante, celebrated for its wines and peaches, and proud of a fine bridge spanning the Tamega. But the only towns important on account of their population are Braga and Guimarães, both placed on commanding heights overlooking a most fertile country. Braga (Bracara Augusta), an ancient Roman colony, the capital of the Galicians, then of the Suevi, and later on the residence of {480} the Kings of Portugal, became the primatial city of the whole of the peninsula when the two kingdoms were temporarily united under the same sovereign. But Braga is not only a town of the past, it is even now a bustling place, where hats, linens, arms, and beautiful filigree are manufactured for exportation to the rest of Portugal and the Portuguese colonies. Guimarães is equally as interesting as Braga on account of its monuments and mediæval legends. Visitors are still shown the sacred olive-tree which sprang from a seed placed in the soil by King Wamba, when still a common labourer; and Affonso, the founder of the Portuguese monarchy, was born in the old castle. Guimarães is a busy manufacturing town; it produces cutlery, hardware, and table-linen, and English visitors never fail to purchase there a curiously ornamented box of prunes. Near it are much-frequented sulphur springs, known to the Romans as Aquæ Levæ. But the most famous mineral springs of modern Portugal are the Caldas do Gerez, in a tributary valley of the Upper Cávado.

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