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Porto · Mysteries & legends

Porto of lost souls, prison cells and enchanted books

A bridge swallowed by the river, bones beneath a church of gold, a painting with no certain author, a jail where a novel was born, the bookshop of the fake Hogwarts and a house hidden between two churches. What we know and what people say, without mixing them up.

  • 6 stops
  • 1.7 km
  • 1 h 50 min
  • Free
Start with GPS Read about this stop 1
Bronze relief of the Alminhas da Ponte depicting the 1809 tragedy

The route

Stop by stop

  1. 1 Alminhas da PonteA bronze relief with candles always burning recalls the morning in 1809 when a bridge of boats gave way under a panicking crowd.
  2. 2 Church of São FranciscoOutside, a stern Gothic church; inside, a blaze of gold; underground, the catacombs of the Third Order.
  3. 3 The Misericórdia and the «Fons Vitae» mysteryOn Rua das Flores hangs a five-hundred-year-old Flemish panel whose painter is still being debated.
  4. 4 Former Relação PrisonThe jail where Camilo Castelo Branco wrote a novel of doomed love while his lover served her time in another cell.
  5. 5 Livraria LelloThe bookshop half the world believes inspired Harry Potter, even though its author says she never set foot in it.
  6. 6 The Hidden House of CarmoBetween two churches that were not allowed to touch, a house barely more than a metre wide that almost nobody notices.

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Walk it with GPS.

Open guide mode on your phone: you’ll see your position and the distance to each stop, and we’ll let you know when you arrive. Then read or listen.

Start with GPS

  1. Turn on your location

  2. Walk to the spot

  3. Check the photo and listen

What you’ll discover

Porto of lost souls, prison cells and enchanted books

Memory and devotion

The candles of the Alminhas da Ponte and the catacombs of São Francisco: how Porto remembers its dead.

Myths with a sell-by date

Harry Potter and Livraria Lello, or how a legend is born and debunked in the 21st century.

Record and tradition

At every stop we separate what is proven from what is merely told.

Keep exploring

More routes in Porto

Back to Porto
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