Places
Centro Português de Fotografia (Former Cadeia da Relação)
Eugénio dos Santos / Humberto Vieira e Eduardo Souto de Moura
Séc. XVIII / 2001
Saturday
Sunday
Centro Português de Fotografia
Open Visits
Regular Visits
Visits in English
Maximum 20 people per visit
No reservation required; first-come, first-served
Partial access to wheelchair
Photography allowed
Description
Designed by Eugénio dos Santos, the military engineer and architect responsible for the Pombaline reconstruction of Lisbon’s city centre, the building of the Antiga Cadeia e Tribunal da Relação do Porto (Old Prison and Court of Appeal of Porto) is a unique example of 18th century Portuguese civil architecture and contains some of the city’s most important memories. Fully preserved in structural terms, it is one of the few buildings of this type still standing in Europe and is possibly the most paradigmatic prison building in the country. Erected as part of the urban renewal promoted by governor-general João de Almada e Melo, it was probably Porto’s first great civil building, reflecting in a remarkable way, even in European terms, its status as a bulwark of the exercise of state power, evident from the outset in its monumental solidity and the decorative programme of the courthouse, made up of a symbolic ensemble evocative of the principles of the old regime. Today, after its restoration between 1987 and 2000, as a result of the latest extraordinary intervention by architects Humberto Vieira and Eduardo Souto Moura, the monument retains the memory and evocative power of its original surroundings, while at the same time housing the contemporaneity of an exemplary restoration and the Portuguese Photography Centre, which the general public can now enjoy with quality. (Graça Correia and Joel Cleto, OHP’22)
Location
Largo Amor de Perdição
Directions: Google Maps / Apple Maps
Public Transport
Subway: Linha D - S Bento
Bus: STCP 200, 201, 207, 208, 301, 303, 501, 507, 601, 602, 900 — Cordoaria