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U.Porto Memory

Rectory Building of the U.Porto - Urban Environment

Carlos Alberto Square

The roads that crossed the Porta do Olival towards Braga and Guimarães branched into the Carlos Alberto Square. The first documentary reference to this place – called Largo dos Ferradores - was found in a registry in the parish of Santo Ildefonso, dated 1638.

The square was also named Feira das Caixas because one of the carpenter stalls was used to manufacture the luggage used by the immigrants who went to Brazil.

Another fair took place here - the "feira dos criados de lavoura e das criadas de servir" [fair of farming men and house maids] -, originally held in Praça da Corujeira and later transferred to the Boavista Square in 1876.

The palace of the Viscounts of Balsemão, located on the east side of the Square, currently houses the Municipal Directorate for Culture of the Porto City Council. Converted into a hostel during the 19^th century - Hospedaria do Peixe –, it was visited in 1949 by the King of Piedmont and Sardinia, Carlos Alberto, when he was exiled in Porto. In memory of the King’s visit, the old Largo dos Ferradores became the current Carlos Alberto Square.

The horse-drawn vehicle used by the company Empreza Portuense de Carros Ripert, which between 1853 and 1910 linked Porto and São Mamede de Infesta, had a terminal stop here. It was also from here that the first American car left Porto to Cadouços, in Foz do Douro, on 12 August 1874.

As part of the urban rehabilitation works in downtown Porto sponsored by "Sociedade Porto 2001", Carlos Alberto Square was rehabilitated according to a project by architect Manuel Magalhães. The construction of the underground parking space dates from this period, internally connected to the parks in Gomes Teixeira Square and the Lisboa Square. Later, in 2006, the "Quarteirão de Carlos Alberto" was the area chosen by "Porto Vivo - Sociedade de Reabilitação Urbana" to be the first urban area to be rehabilitated.

From this square, you can access Rua de Cedofeita, opened at the end of the 18^th century by the Board of Public Works managed by João de Almada e Melo, along an old road in front of the Colegiada with the same name – Colegiada de Cedofeita. This road was used by travellers from the South bound for Vila do Conde, Barcelos and Santiago de Compostela.

This street, which was to become a populous and bustling residential and commercial area, has high buildings, typical of the modern and contemporary periods. The buildings have good quality stone work and interesting glazed tile finishings. The area was recently classified as a Listed Area (Ordinance 559/2011).

The building at Rua de Cedofeita, 395, was used by the Prince Regent D. Pedro during the Siege of Porto (1832-1833), after the bombing of Carrancas Palace (now Soares dos Reis National Museum). Joaquim de Vasconcelos (1849-1936) and Carolina Michaëlis (1851-1925), leading figures of the Portuguese arts lived in No. 159 in this street.

The name "Cedofeita" is the name of the parish in which we find the street - Cedofeita parish - are associated with the legend of the founding of Cedofeita Church, built in the current Largo do Priorado. Tradition states that this temple was built by a Swabian king who had promised its construction to Saint Martin of Tours if ever a cure was found for his ill son. The rapid recovery of the child thus explained an equally rapid construction and the cito facta expression, that ie, "Cedo feita" [soon done].

The Church of S. Martinho de Cedofeita, run by the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine, was built in the 13^th century in the Romanesque style, showing in its sculptures the influence of the Romanesque School of Vale do Sousa, of the Church of Santiago de Coimbra and of the Cathedral of Porto. In 1935, it was thoroughly restored, during which they removed the interventions done in the 17^th and 18^th centuries.