2025
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Guided tours to discover the visionary sites and projects of two major figures in Portuguese architecture.
Porto is the birthplace of two major figures in Portuguese and international architecture, Álvaro Siza Vieira and Eduardo Souto de Moura, both winners of the prestigious Pritzker Prize. Their influence, a blend of heritage and innovation, has had a profound impact on the urban landscape. To discover this architectural wealth and explore Porto in a different way, the Casa da Arquitectura is offering five themed guided tours, featuring iconic sites, visionary projects and insights from architects who have transformed the city over the centuries.
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Architectural tours from €12. Book online or by e-mail.
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Tours d'Architecture is a program of guided tours offered by Casa da Arquitectura, one of Portugal's leading centers for the promotion and reflection of contemporary architecture, located in Matosinhos, in the Porto region. This program invites you to discover Portuguese architecture through itineraries designed and led by specialized architects. It is aimed at both the general public and organized groups, both national and international.
Among the itineraries on offer is theÁlvaro Siza itinerary, which allows you to discover the architect's first major works, offering a site visit that values direct experience, understanding of context and the author's ideas and intentions.
If you'd like to discover Porto's city center from a new angle, you can also follow the Walking Tours - Porto: Historic Center and River, inviting you to explore the city center on foot through the watchful eye of an architect, interpreting the moments of transition that have marked its evolution, from medieval grid to planned city to contemporary. On the other hand, Eclectic Porto focuses on the twentieth-century city that reflects a blend of English, Beaux-Arts and avant-garde influences, inviting visitors to explore the key places of this period and discover what makes Porto the eclectic city it is today.
Each tour is offered in Portuguese or English, with other languages available on request. Tours are available Monday to Sunday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., subject to booking and availability. It is also possible to request a more personalized experience, with a tailor-made program combining different spaces and itineraries. Discover what's on offer and enjoy the best of Portuguese architecture!
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Itinerary Alvaro Siza
LA CASA DA ARCHITECTURA offers several architectural tours in and around Porto, including the Álvaro Siza itinerary. This tour takes in the architect's early works, spread between Matosinhos and Leça da Palmeira. It offers a sense of place, context and the architect's ideas and intentions.
1 - Casa de Chá da Boa Nova
A building that hides and reveals itself between the rocks, in close articulation with the sea. Listed as a national monument, the Boa Nova tea house is one of architect Álvaro Siza's earliest works, and has become an ex-libris on international architecture itineraries.
- Visits Mondays from 14:00 to 17:00 and Tuesdays to Saturdays from 09:00 to 10:30
2 - Piscina das Marés
A swimming pool set in the natural landscape. A journey that begins as part of the urban landscape and culminates in the unmissable Piscinas das Marés in Leça da Palmeira. A unique experience of a relationship with the sea in all its fullness.
- Visits Monday to Sunday, 9:00 to 18:00
3 - Tennis pavilion and swimming pool at Quinta da Conceição
Project by Álvaro Siza and his master Fernando Távora. The relationship between master and pupil is explored here, and the swimming pool designed by Álvaro Siza completes Fernando Távora's intervention at Quinta da Conceição, where the Tennis Pavilion is also located, a kind of manifesto of the transition between tradition and modernity.
- Visits Monday to Sunday, 9:00 to 18:00
4 - Casa Roberto Ivens
Casa Roberto Ivens takes us back to Álvaro Siza's youth, having been the home where he spent his teenage years. In 1961, he renovated the home at the request of his parents, initiating a harmonious dialogue between the ancient and the modern that reveals the architect's precocious critical sensibility.
- Visits Monday to Sunday, 9:00 to 18:00
Each building takes one hour to visit.
The tour has a minimum of 5 participants and a maximum of 25.
Tour price: €45 (€12 per space), transportation from one space to another not included.
Reservations by email: [email protected]
Walking Tour - Porto Historic Center and River
Over time, Porto grew up between the river and the hill, where the banks of the Douro converge, making it easier to cross and offering shelter from the sea. Based on this unique geography and trade routes, Porto grew up around the Morro da Penaventosa, where the cathedral stands, bounded to the south by the old river beach. This tension between south and north, between river and hills, between heights and shallows, has given rise to a dense urban fabric, made up of ruptures and continuities, which today makes up the Unesco World Heritage landscape.
This itinerary invites you to explore this historic center through the watchful eye of an architect, interpreting the moments of transition that have marked its evolution, from medieval grid to planned city to contemporary city.
Walking Tour - Porto Eclectic
The architecture of 20th-century Porto reflects a blend of English, Beaux-Arts and avant-garde influences, creating a unique identity.
On this walking tour, we invite visitors to explore the key landmarks of this period and discover what makes Porto the eclectic city it is today.
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