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The 1st Christmas Tree of the Portugal was in Porto
24 December, 2020 /

According to history, it was in Porto that for the first time a Christmas tree was built in the country.

It took place in the old Crystal Palace, in 1865, during the international exhibition, and this was also the first international exhibition in the Iberian Peninsula.

The legend says that it was chosen as a Christmas symbol for its triangular shape, which in Christian tradition represents the Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The Christmas Tree or Christmas Pine has been known in its present form since the 16th century.

It appeared in Germany where small pine trees were decorated with colourful fruit and sweet paper.

The tradition spread throughout Europe and arrived in the USA in 1800.

The nativity scene is a tradition in the home of the Porto’s Christian. There are records of cribs since the 13th century, created by St. Francis of Assis in 1223, in a cave in Assis, and its present form dates from the 16th century. Normally set up at the foot of the Christmas tree and the presents, it recreates the birth of Jesus in a stable.

Christmas is a magical time to visit Porto, a city full of traditions and craft wonders, delicious traditional wines, and enjoy the festive atmosphere.

On Christmas Eve, the family from Porto gather around the Christmas tree and the nativity scene.

The tradition of the Christmas eve dinner in Porto
9 December, 2020 / , ,

Christmas traditions have always had a very special meaning in the families of Porto, but 100 years ago it was all a little different.

The Christmas Eve dinner (dinner on the 24th of December) only existed in the north. In the south of Porto, from Advent, families fasted meat, and this day was spent in strict fasting. Only after the “Missa do Galo” (rooster’s mass) was the supper served.

Porto already followed the tradition of the Middle Ages, with the Christmas Codfish. The family gathered at the table to celebrate the “Consoada” (Christmas Eve), which comes from the verb consolation.

As one could not eat meat, and the codfish was the cheapest fish, the meal consisted of boiled codfish, accompanied with boiled cabbage and potatoes, watered by a good extra virgin national olive oil; the codfish pastries, the stewed octopus, or the octopus rice were other of the most chosen meatless dishes.

But since the 2d World War, only the richest families continued to be able to consume codfish on a regular basis, and for those the codfish became only for festive days.

There is a legend that in Toledo, before the 12 chimes, the farmers killed a rooster, which they took to church to give to the poorest, to have a happier Christmas. So the meat was reserved for Christmas Day (25 December) with the stuffed turkey being the king of this day.
The “Missa do Galo” was not part of Porto traditions, as family life should not be interrupted. In the north no one prayed for Child Jesus at midnight, because at that time everyone was around the octopus and the codfish.

For dessert, the Christmas “broas de natal” stand out, and later the famous “Bolo-rei”, in a round shape, with a hole in the middle. Traditionally, inside the cake there was a dried bean, and a small gift made of metal or ceramic. Whoever got the dried bean had the duty to pay for the next Bolo Rei, and the gift was lucky for whoever found it.

Behind this cake there is a symbolism about 2000 years old. The legend says that the cake represents the gifts that the Wise Men gave to the Child Jesus. The crown symbolizes gold, the crystallized and dried fruits are myrrh, and the aroma of the cake is incense.

This tradition was imported from France, from the court of Louis XIV, where this cake was made for New Year’s Eve and Kings Day celebrations. The Bolo-rei arrived in Porto in 1890 by the Confeitaria Cascais (pastry shop).

Another dessert that a Porto native does not dispense on Christmas Eve is “Aletria”. It has Arab origin and was made with fine pasta, almond milk and honey. It is usually covered with drawings made of cinnamon.

Also the “Rabanadas” are a sweet delicacy in the house of the Porto’s families. Here it is customary to get them drunk with port wine. In the south they are called “Fatias Douradas”.
The first recipes date back to 1611. In the early 20th century they were very common in Madrid, where the recipe came from.
Port wine is the nectar of the Porto’s Christmas, and it is always a good time to drink, buy and offer. Without ever forgetting the choice of the best wines to put on the table in these festivities.

The fire alarm system, in Porto city, in the 19th century
13 November, 2020 / , ,

– HELP ME, HELP, HELP….

Maria das Dores Bernardes, butcher´s daughter, Bernardo, screamed at the top of her lungs, that her house was on fire and distressed, asking for help from her neighbors, who half-walled , lived with her in other wooden houses in Ribeira do Porto.
The neighbors did what they could with a buckets of water and little else, because there was nothing more to do …

Screams of terror and cries of women were heard, crying out for divine intervention …
It took a few hours for everything to be destroyed and the few goods consumed by the fire.

This story of pure fiction, would have been a situation that would surely have occurred several times in the early years of the 19th century in the city of Porto, where a small fire created chaos in the city and there was no one to help the fires that consumed the small houses. It was necessary to take measures so that these fires did not further aggravate the difficult situation of those who, with very little, managed to survive and fires were the worst of all evils.

There were no firefighters, nor fire-fighting cars, and in the absence of electricity (only invented many years later), only candles and lamps illuminated houses at night, increasing the risk of fires, particularly in the closed urban centers.
The scare was permanent and the risks increased, because the population was increasing – they came from the interior, from Minho and from all regions of the country looking for better living conditions which the new industries of the industrial revolution brought to all these people.
The small houses became more and more crowded and the risk increased.
Something had to be done quickly…
It was there that, by agreement between the representatives of the different masters of the city, the City Council and the Cabido, an innovative solution was sought to calm the populations and reduce the risks of fire.
Eureka! Finally a solution…Everyone was called to go to a fire, wherever part of the city was – everyone would be a volunteer.
A contraption was designed, a “device” capable of warning everyone that there was a fire so that everyone could come to the rescue.

FIRE ALARM SYSTEM

Stored inside an iron box, a lever pulled a protected rope inside an iron pipe that would ring the bell of the Church high up there giving a number of rings on the bell announcing the place of fire, so that the whole population would know where to go to help those in need.

A uniform regulation was created throughout the City and depending on the number of times the Church bell rang, anyone who could go to that place would go. For this purpose, a table was created of the number of chimes that the bell would ring, where the fire would occur according to the places.

So, if the fire occurred in the Sé area, the bell would ring 4 chimes and so on. As soon as the bell rang 3 times, the alarm signalled that the situation was under control and everything could return to normal. This system was then set up in various churches in the 50s, in the 19th century, located at strategic points of the city, and it worked well.

Only years later, in 1875 the Associação dos Bombeiros Voluntários was founded in Porto by a group of influential people in the City, merchants and industrialists who, concerned with safeguarding their goods, decided to put their hands to work, and create the best conditions so that in case of fire the firemen could put out the fires. So, no wonder that influential people in the City and with financial capacity to organize an Associação dos Bombeiros Voluntários had been essential to set in motion an organization that would defend everyone from that common enemy – the fire!

Names such as Alexandre Theodoro Glama, Hugo Kopke, Walter Kendall, Alexander Miller Fleming, were essential in the realization of this need increasingly felt in Porto, installing its first headquarter in Rua do Bonjardim.
Specific wheelbarrows were built with water pumps that were carried in barrels and that could calm the anger of the blazes.

In 1876, the publication “O Bombeiro Portuguez” (The Portuguese Fireman) was created to publicize the activity of the Voluntary Firefighters, which was a fortnightly leaf, where the creation of other machines and techniques for fighting fires was taken into account, as well as other news.

Since it was necessary to increase the number of volunteers, in 1872, notices were placed in the City’s commercial houses for recruitment to make themselves available for this noble and altruistic function.

And here comes the registration as a volunteer of a young man of 19 years, born in Brazil in 1850 from a wealthy family who settled in Porto.

Guilherme Gomes Fernandes, developed a remarkable evolution in the creation of conditions for the Voluntary Firemen of Porto until his death in 1902 in Lisbon, following a septicaemia after a surgery.
He is honoured in a square that carries his name (ancient Santa Teresa Square), where a bust keeps his memory forever.

Well…

As for the “contraptions” they no longer have any reason to exist and to fulfil their role, rusting and almost lost forever, and I say almost, because fortunately, some have been recovered recently and put into operation as at the time they were created, such as the one on the façade of S. Lourenço Church, in the Cathedral, among other cases which it is pleasing to note and continue to protect because they are already part of the history of the City.

Today they no longer play their role of fire alarm, but keep alive the memories of the city that are always worth preserving.

Writers’ route through Porto ( António Nobre )
13 November, 2020 / ,

António Pereira Nobre Portuguese poet, born in Porto on August 16, 1867, at Rua de Santa Catarina, 467-469. Son of wealthy bourgeois, he lived his childhood and adolescence between Leça da Palmeira, Foz do Douro, Póvoa de Varzim, Lixa or Seixo.

He studied in several schools in the Porto and attended the main centres of the bohemian city. He started writing very early and published numerous poems in newspapers and magazines. His first poems date from 15 years of age.

In 1888 he enrolled in the law course of the University of Coimbra, but he did not fit in with the student life of Coimbra, and he was disappointed with the academic environment and university life, and failed twice.

In 1890 he went to Paris, where he met Eça de Queirós, and graduated in Political Science from the Sorbonne in 1895.

It was in the solitude of Paris, and experiencing financial difficulties, that she wrote many of the poems of the poetry collection “Só”, his only published work in life – one of the great landmarks of 19th century Portuguese poetry, and a mandatory reference in Portuguese Literature, which influenced great names of Portuguese modernism such as Fernando Pessoa or Florbela Espanca.

A victim of pulmonary tuberculosis, he died in Foz do Douro, on March 18, 1900, at the age of 32, at the home of his brother Augusto Nobre, a renowned biologist and professor at the University of Porto.

In the middle of the Cordoaria Garden, on 26 March 1927, a bust was inaugurated by the Porto poet, António Nobre, by Tomás Costa.
In a solitary place, we see a beautiful small bronze bust, which immortalizes his face, with its peculiar characteristic smile, sensitive, delicate, sad and melancholic
On a kind of altar, it rests on a marble pedestal with bouquets of flowers, and an allegorical lyre to its poetic inspiration, which is under a granite base with three steps.

Abel Salazar house museum
13 November, 2020 / , ,

Located in S. Mamede Infesta, it is a construction from the end of the XIX century. An 17th century chapel is attached, which served as a workshop for the patron. It was in this house that the last years of existence of the Portuguese scientist and professor passed.
In the permanent exhibition of the house, in addition to the collection of paintings, drawings and prints, there are utensils and scientific writings by Abel Salazar, as well as original pieces of furniture from the house.

The Casa-Museu restores part of the patron’s family atmosphere, through personal objects and portraits, as well as testimonies of the activity of the researcher, pedagogue and disseminator of civic interventions, through letters, manuscripts, typographic proofs, newspapers and magazines where he collaborated.
The doctor’s library and the Alberto Saavedra library are also located in the house, with a specialized documentary background on the life and work of Abel Salazar.

In the garden, there is the Calouste Gulbenkian Pavilion, with a regular program of exhibitions with contemporary artists.
It was Abel Salazar’s friends and admirers who, after his death, thought that the greatest tribute they could pay him was to transform his home into a foundation.
Several initiatives were undertaken to raise funds in the task of defending and publicizing the Work of Abel Salazar, including the purchase of the house for transformation into a museum. But it was only almost 11 years later that the “Sociedade Divulgadora da Casa-Museu Abel Salazar de S. Mamede Infesta” was created.
However, the difficulties continued and the Sociedade Divulgadora appealed to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, which acquired, in 1965, all artistic, literary and scientific work and the property and l

and attached to the Casa-Museu.
During the period that belonged to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the house was closed to the public for restoration works, construction of the guardhouse and the pavilion for periodic exhibitions.
In 1975, the Foundation was no longer able to assume the responsibilities of the House and raises the question of the Casa-Museu being donated to the University of Porto, which was superiorly authorized to accept the donation.

The Abel Salazar House-Museum, under the supervision of the University of Porto, is run with the support of a Sociedade Divulgadora, a cultural entity and considered to be of Public Utility. Centered on the human, social and artistic value of the patron, the Casa-Museu aims to stimulate interest in the work of Abel Salazar in the different branches he cultivated, to activate the publication of studies around the different skills of the scientist, to foster collaboration with schools and cultural and recreational organizations, to complete the work of inventorying and investigating the literary estate both published and unpublished, assuming itself as an irreplaceable information and research center for the artist and scientist Abel Salazar.

Abel Salazar
13 November, 2020 / , ,

Abel de Lima Salazar was not only the doctor and scientific researcher, until today known for his achievements, but also a writer, art critic, essayist and visual artist. Despite his name being inextricably linked to Porto, Guimarães was the city that saw him born on July 19, 1889.

Student of excellence, Abel Salazar finishes the medical course at the Medical-Surgical School of Porto presenting his inaugural thesis “Essay on Philosophical Psychology” which ends up classified with 20 values.

At the age of 30, 3 years after completing his studies, he is appointed Full Professor of Histology and Embryology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, eventually founding and directing the University’s Institute of Histology and Embryology, still in operation today.

His research work was quickly recognized and disseminated, reaching worldwide fame, due to numerous publications of articles in scientific magazines, Portuguese and foreign.

As a researcher, he contributed, in particular, with works related to the structure and evolution of the ovary, creating the now famous, and still used, Salazar’s tano-ferric staining method.

However, the work so intense that he developed, even in very adverse conditions, led to an exhaustion and the interruption of this activity, for a period of four years.
He would then end up dedicating himself diligently to the elaboration and publication of scientific texts, also focusing on the artistic practice of which he was a notable representative, especially in painting, engraving and hammered copper.

This multifaceted man, whose motto was “The Doctor who only knows Medicine, nor Medicine knows”, one of the greatest Portuguese intellectuals of his time, only in 1941, was reinstated at the University, in the laboratory of the Faculty of Pharmacy of Porto.

He died in 1946, in Lisbon, where he was being treated for lung cancer. He was 57 and a heavy smoker. The body was transferred to the city of Porto, where it was deposited at the Prado Repouso Cemetery.

Nowadays, its name is immortalized through the Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar, the square, where the Santo António Hospital is located , Secondary Schools and the Abel Salazar House-Museum.

Hospital Santo António – 250 years of City Hospital
6 November, 2020 / , ,

Located in the Historic Center of Porto, more specifically in Largo do Professor Abel Salazar, Hospital de Santo António completed, in 2020, 250 years since the first stone was laid.

The history of Hospital de Santo António emerges as a saga of determination, boldness and altruism. Right from the start, its construction, which, regardless of the megalomania of the project and the location error, very swampy, constituted a pressing need for the city in transformation.

However, it was demonstrated that, in order to build and maintain their Hospital, the people of Porto and their Misericórdia often found themselves alone and dismayed by the power that, at decisive moments, treated Porto with the pride of a centralism that only in the mid-twentieth century would begin to look at the city in the right measure of its hospital needs.
On 15 July 1770, the vacant land on the outskirts of Largo gave way to the construction of the Hospital, but the proposal presented by the English architect John Carr did not come to be fully implemented, such was its size, grandeur and cost. The start of construction was faced with an unexpected difficulty, the terrain that was very moist and swampy, making it difficult to build the foundations that would support the building. John Carr, who never came to Porto, designed the interiors in brick. The option for granite was expensive and prolonged the construction.

In addition to the geographical problems, the first years of construction were marked by the “turbulence” of the French invasions, between the 1770 and the beginning of the 19th century, causing only two thirds of the project to be carried out.

Further on in history, and already after the inauguration of the unit, which happened only in 1824, the country waged a civil war between absolutists and liberals and, later, still faced the bubonic plague and the Spanish flu of 1918.

It is also in 1825 that it is associated with the hospital, the Porto Medical-Surgical School, ancestor of the Faculty of Medicine of Porto that operated there until the end of the year 1959, moving to the newly built Hospital São João.

After 20 years, in 1979, the hospital again receives students from the 4th year of the medical course at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar (ICBAS) at the University of Porto, ensuring the regency of most of the curricular units. Currently, the average admission is the highest among the 7 integrated Master’s degrees in Medicine from Portuguese universities.
The building is the most Palladian of Portuguese buildings, and the largest, built outside the British Isles, developing on several floors, in a sober, simple and symmetrical way, but with well-defined volumes animating the surface.

It became the “city hospital” and, since 1910, it is considered a National Monument.

Today the Hospital de Santo António is the anchor of the Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Porto, which also incorporates the Jacinto de Magalhães Medical Genetics Center and the Northern Albino Aroso Maternal and Child Center, resulting from the merger of the Júlio Dinis Maternity and the Children Hospital Maria Pia, as well as the human and cultural heritage of the Joaquim Urbano Infectious Diseases Hospital.

CHUP is dedicated to assistance, teaching, medical internships, training, innovation and clinical and scientific research. The direct reference area ranges from the cosmopolitan seafront to the old islands of Porto, passing through the city, working class neighborhoods and villages of Gondomar. It has about 4400 workers, from dozens of professions. Each day that passes, there are about 100 admissions, 2900 consultations, 140 scheduled surgeries, 420 emergency episodes, 300 episodes of day hospital and 10
parturition .

Each week, it hosts a new international multicentre clinical trial and places four scientific articles on an international basis. The library has numerous resources for searching and obtaining bibliography. The Museum of Medicine and Pharmacy is part of the Portuguese Museum Network, linking the hospital to the city and to tourists.

Learn about Siza Vieira through his work
7 October, 2020 / , ,

The most renowned Portuguese architect has designed  created homes, museums, schools and even a metro station in the area of ​​greater Porto.

The Casa de Chá/Restaurante da Boa Nova and the Piscina das Marés, both in Leça da Palmeira, are two of the most famous works of this architect. Dating from the 60s, an early stage of his career, both are located in the hometown where he was born. In addition, in Matosinhos, the Monument in honour of the poet António Nobre, the esplanade of Leça da Palmeira or the swimming pool of the Quinta da Conceição are other examples of the work of the Pritzker Prize winner.

In Porto there are also several public spaces designed by Siza Vieira, such as the Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade do Porto (Porto Faculty of Architecture), the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Serralves Foundation; projects which were completed in the 90’s. Siza Vieira’s trait also exists in social housing, such as the San Vittore district or the neighborhood of Bouça, in office buildings and even the tomb of the poet Eugenio Andrade.

Among his most recent works and more visible to the general public are, for example, the renewal of the Avenida dos Aliados and the metro station of Sâo Bento, both located in the city centre.

Siza Vieira is also responsible for the new Chapel Afurada in Vila Nova de Gaia, which will soon be built. Marco de Canaveses, Gondomar and Vila do Conde are also cities with projects created by the architect.

Commercial Association of Porto – since 1834
7 October, 2020 / , ,

Despite the fact that it was officially founded in December 1834, the Commercial Association of Porto which dates back to the twelfth century, when trade and tradesmen, especially in coastal areas, were gaining more power.

Over the centuries, owing to its strategic location and the entrepreneurial spirit of its people, the city of Porto acquired great importance, becoming an important financial center in Europe and the world. It was at this stage that a shared “Trust fund” was established, created by merchants to cover risks and shipment losses of their commodities. This fund was recognized in 1295 by King Dinis and in 1402 by King John I.

However, until 1834 there was no organization of traders with legal status and competent to meet the needs of local entrepreneurs. At this point, meetings, the exchange of information, business and auctions were held in the “Juntina”, located at the then Rua dos Ingleses. After the Liberal Revolution of 1822 and the enactment of the Commercial Code, the Juntina was the basis of the founding of the Porto Commercial Association, which is currently the second oldest Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Portugal mainland.

Porto city of Labor and Freedom
7 October, 2020 / , , ,

To affirm that Porto is the city of work – it is a brand image, certainly adequate and fair, but that does not guarantee, by itself, that all Porto people love the work or that there are not many other lands that deserve the same praise.

In any case, such fame reflects the external recognition that its people are hardworking and that throughout history they have been affirmed by work, that is, by business as opposed to leisure.
However, Porto is not just the city of work.

The Portuguese tradition, corroborating the opinion of 19th century scholars and historical events of ‘national projection’, attributes the epithet of Land of freedom to it, an older and more noble coat of arms than the previous one, which, contrary to hypothetical considerations about a deep lost paradise biblical, not only does not belie it but even complements it.

In fact, work, whether or not it is a consequence or punishment of the original fall, is a condition of success for the common man.

But … work without freedom is always slavery
Fonte: O Tripeiro 7ª série Ano XVI Número 6 e 7 Jun/Jul 1997