Porto Cathedral (Sé do Porto)

Porto Cathedral crowns the hill above the Ribeira and is the oldest major monument in the city. Its story starts in the early 12th century, when a chapel on the site was founded in 1108, and construction of the present building ran from the second half of that century into the 16th. The result is a fortress-like Romanesque church that later centuries reshaped with Gothic and Baroque additions.

Inside, the barrel-vaulted Romanesque nave is plain and solemn, and its flying buttresses are among the earliest examples in Portugal. The 14th-century Gothic chapel of São João Evangelista and the cloister date from the late Middle Ages, while the main chapel, the Santíssimo Sacramento chapel with its silver altar and the sacristy belong to the 17th and 18th centuries. Nicolau Nasoni, the architect of the Clérigos Tower, added the Baroque loggia on the side façade in 1736 and painted frescoes in the main chapel.

Make time for the cloister, whose walls are covered with blue-and-white azulejo panels made between 1729 and 1731 and illustrating the Song of Songs. Ask at the entrance which areas need a ticket, as parts of the complex are visited separately from the church.

The terrace in front of the cathedral, the Terreiro da Sé, is one of the best free viewpoints in Porto. From here you look down over the tiled roofs of the Barredo district to the Douro and across to the port lodges of Vila Nova de Gaia. The square is also a good place to stop and get your bearings before heading down the steep lanes towards the river.

Allow around an hour for the church, cloister and terrace. The climb up from the river is steep, so if you are coming from the Ribeira, take your time on the stepped lanes or approach from the São Bento side, which is gentler. Morning visits tend to be quieter than the middle of the day, when tour groups arrive. Modest clothing is sensible as it remains an active place of worship, and services take priority over sightseeing. The cathedral is a short walk uphill from São Bento station, and from the terrace the upper deck of the Dom Luís I Bridge is a few minutes away, which makes a natural next stop.