Landscaped Gardens In Porto

Porto is a hilly, granite city, and its green spaces tend to be tucked behind walls or perched above the river, so a garden here is often a surprise. The most famous are the Jardins do Palácio de Cristal, the Crystal Palace Gardens, which occupy a clifftop on the western side of the centre, with views over the Douro towards the sea. It is a place where residents come to walk, read and sit under trees, and where visitors can take a break from sightseeing.

The name comes from a lost building. In 1865, an international exhibition was held in Porto, and a huge iron-and-glass hall, inspired by the Crystal Palace in London, was built on this site to house it. The pavilion was demolished in the 1950s and replaced by a domed sports arena, the Pavilhão Rosa Mota, which has been given the name of Porto's champion marathon runner, but the gardens that surrounded the original building survive. They were laid out in the English romantic manner by a German landscape gardener, Emil David, with winding paths, ponds, lawns and groves of trees rather than strict geometry.

Today, the park is divided into themed areas. A rose garden, a garden of scents and textures, called the Garden of Sensations, shaded alleys of plane trees and linden, a collection of camellias, magnolias and rhododendrons, and a small lake with ducks give variety. Peacocks and roosters wander freely, often spreading their tails for visitors, and have become the unofficial mascots of the park. Fountains, statues and a series of balconies and terraces look out over the river, the port lodges across the water and the Arrábida Bridge. The library of the city, the Biblioteca Almeida Garrett, sits in a pavilion nearby, and the area is quiet.

Other gardens deserve a mention. The Porto Botanical Garden, in the grounds of an old estate not far from the Crystal Palace, has formal box hedges, greenhouses, a collection of camellias and a quiet orchard, and a manor house associated with the poet Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, whose family lived there. Further west, the Serralves Foundation has a large park around an Art Deco villa and a contemporary art museum, which can be visited with a ticket, and along the coast, the City Park, the largest urban park in Portugal, runs down to the beach. Opening hours of the gardens vary by season, with longer days in summer, and entry to the Crystal Palace Gardens has been free.

Spring and early summer are the best times to visit, when the roses and camellias are in bloom. Comfortable shoes are useful, as the gardens are on a slope. The gardens suit families, photographers and anyone who wants a restful interlude in the city.