Authentication

User ID:

Password:

Iniciar sessão

U.Porto Memory

Rectory Building of the U.Porto - Urban Environment

The house where Almeida Garrett was born

João Baptista de Almeida Garrett, statesman, diplomat, speaker, writer, reformer of the national theatre and introducer of Romanticism in Portugal, was born in Porto on 4 February 1799, in the former Rua do Calvário, nos. 18, 19 and 20, now Rua Dr. Barbosa de Castro, nos. 37, 39 and 41.

The house where Almeida Garrett was born and spent the first five year of his life, located at the back of the Gothic walls, bears on the ground floor façade, since 1864, a Neo-classical plaster medallion, sponsored by the City Council of Porto, with the following inscription in capital letters: "The house where João Baptista da Silva Leitão de Almeida Garrett was born on 4 February 1799 / Engraved in honour of the great poet by the City Council of this city in 1864".
 

Rua do Calvário, now Rua Dr. Barbosa de Castro

The genealogist and historian Eugénio Andrea da Cunha e Freitas (1912-2000) mentions in his book "Toponímia Portuense" [street names in Porto] that the former Rua do Calvário (Calvário Novo), as it was known since 1679 to differ from Calvário Velho where the Convent of the Discalced Carmelites once stood, was renamed Rua Dr. Barbosa de Castro in 1920, in honour of the lawyer, Mayor and judge of the Commercial Court of Porto, José Gonçalves Barbosa de Castro (1858-1920).

The author also mentions that there were many religious buildings in this street, such as the Chapel of the Alms of S. José das Taipas (18^th century), built by Pantaleão Pacheco and his wife, Isabel Silva, in memory of their son José Pacheco, and a chapel and cross found in that chapel in 1869.