Vaughan's Birthday in a Golden Palace

Today’s weather was perfect for Vaughan’s birthday as there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the temperatures got up to 20 C. We enjoyed the day by going on the 2nd day of our Yellow Bus Hop On Hop Off Tour - this time on the Historical Porto route.

We caught the bus at the end of our street and once again listened to an English commentary on headphones. We hadn’t really planned to stop anywhere special except to see the Palácio da Bolsa, the Stock Exchange Palace, a National Monument in the historic centre of the city.

The building was constructed in the mid 1800’s (took 50 years to build) in a neoclassical style and is situated next to the St Francis Church. It was built on the ruins of the St Francis Convent after it was burnt down during the Liberal Wars. In 1841, Queen Mary II donated the convent ruins to the merchants of the city, who decided to use the spot to build the seat of the Commercial Association and what a building they built!

When we got there at 12:00, we found out that the next tour would be in 5 minutes but it would be given in Portuguese. If we wanted the English tour, we would have to wait until 2 p.m. We decided to go on the Portuguese tour and just enjoy the building.

The interior of the Palace, only finished in 1910, was magnificently decorated by several artists.

The central courtyard called the Nations' Courtyard (Pátio das Nações) was covered by a large metallic, octagonal dome with glass panels. Natural light poured into the whole courtyard and drew attention to the lovely wooden floors. Our cameras were out!

The lower part of the dome was decorated with the painted coats-of-arms of Portugal and the countries with which Portugal had commercial relations in the 19th century. We were on tour and people were wanting to move on, but it was hard to leave the room. So many photo opportunities.

We walked up an impressive marble and granite staircase and explored the Golden Room, which is covered with gold-leaf. Then the General Assembly Room, completely decorated in wood and then other splendid rooms until we got to the Palace’s highlight, the Arab Room.

This room is decorated in ‘the exotic Moorish Revival style’, fashionable in the 19th century, and is used as reception hall for weddings and special events (@ €7,000 a night), and for personalities and heads of state visiting Porto. It is really something to behold - a fairytale room.

Our birthday boy could imagine he was a King, for 15 minutes, in this room.Read more