Avenida dos Aliados

You are standing in Porto's living room. This is where the city celebrates football titles and New Year's Eve, where big demonstrations gather, and where Pope John Paul II in 1982 and Benedict XVI in 2010 said Mass. And yet, little more than a century ago, this avenue did not exist.

1An avenue named after a war

Work began on 1 February 1916 as part of an expansion plan by the English architect Barry Parker. The new city hall was approved the same day. Portugal had just entered the First World War, and the avenue was named after the Allied nations. A whole neighbourhood of narrow streets was demolished to make room for it.

2City hall and its tower

At the top, the Paços do Concelho were begun in 1920 to a design by Correia da Silva. Work was interrupted so often that the council did not move in until 1957. The tower, about 70 metres high, has a carillon.

In 2005-2006, the metro works brought a redesign by Álvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura that replaced the gardens with stone, one many locals still argue about.

3What to look for

• The equestrian statue of Pedro IV on Praça da Liberdade: the liberal king who held out in the city during the 1832-1833 siege and left his heart to Porto.
• «A Juventude», Henrique Moreira's 1929 sculpture in the middle of the avenue.
• The Art Deco eagle of the former Café Imperial, on the west side.