Streetart Tour in Porto

We have discovered some beautiful street art images during our forays through Porto and have compiled them into a “Street Art Tour in Porto”. On this tour, there are not only colourful walls to see, but also creative installations and some of the works are even by well-known urban artists.

You can follow our route very well on the map. The route is about 9 kilometres long and, like everywhere else in Porto, it goes uphill and downhill. If the route is too long for you, we recommend splitting it up or taking the bus or metro for some of the longer walks in between. However, this way you will miss the many smaller and larger sights that lie at the “edge” of the street art tour in Porto.

Section 1: Vila Nova de Gaia

Our tour starts in Vila Nova de Gaia at the metro station “Jardim do Morro”. This is the first station of the metro after crossing the Douro. From the bridge you have a great view of the city during the ride – so be sure to stand by the window!
From the metro station above ground, the path leads through the Jardim do Morro to Rua Rocha Leão. A staircase leads down here to Rua de Pilar, which we now followed, turning left, until another staircase appeared on the right, leading us to a larger main street. On the opposite side of the road, a path again leads down towards the riverbank.

Again we descend steps and if you don’t turn around now, you will miss our first piece of art on the street art tour in Porto. The Escadaria das Travessa de Cãndido dos Reis has a picture of colourful miniature façades on each landing. Viewed individually, you can see small details, such as painters or the rubbish men standing in front of the houses. What I find more interesting, however, is the view of the artwork from a distance. It shows a view of the city that is typical of Porto.

Following Rua de Guilherme Braga, you pass one of the entrances to the World of Wine and arrive at the parish church of Santa Marinha. There, in the square, is a transformer house painted with colourful flowers and designed by the Argentinean Pastel.

Half Rabbit – the rabbit made of rubbish

Our next point is just a few steps away. If you follow Rua Dom Afonosi III, you come to Half Rabbit by the Lisbon urban artist Bordalo. He has created a huge rabbit out of rubbish and paint on the corner of a building. As I stand close to the corner of the building, all I see is “rubbish” that has been hung up there. Only from a distance can the rabbit be seen really well and I like it very much.

Following Rua Guilherma Gomes Fernández, we pass a house with a work of art made of car tyres, then we turn and walk along the banks of the Douro until we reach the beautiful Ponte Dom Luis I. Here on the banks, the tourists are bustling, there is one restaurant and one port wine cellar next to the next. The ideal place for a break or to interrupt the tour and first explore Vila Nova de Gaia further. Those who want to continue on the tracks of the street art tour in Porto now cross the Douro again.

Streetart Tour in Porto – Section 2

To cross the river, you do not have to go back to the upper level of the bridge. For our tour it is better to use the lower level for the river crossing.

Once on the other side of the river, turn left and walk along the Douro on Rua do Cais da Ribera. Here you have a beautiful view of Vila Nova de Gaia, the historic port wine boats and the port wine cellars. Excursion boats sail along the Douro and river cruise ships are anchored.

We follow the riverside path until it stops going straight and turn right. At Rua da Reboleira we turn left and arrive at the main road that runs parallel to the Douro. Here we turn left again and follow the road to our next street art picture.

At a small square with a fountain and stretched-out parasols, we discover a large painting of an old woman on the wall of a house. Daniel Eime created the work “Mira” as a homage to the elderly population. I really like it and the old woman reminds me a lot of the many elderly women we met on the streets near our holiday flat.

Our next destination is Rua da Ancira (house number 83), which we reach quite quickly following our route planning. When I stand in front of the house, I see nothing at first. What appears to be a crumbling façade made me suspect that the picture no longer exists. But when I moved a little away from the wall of the house, the crumbling façade became a picture. The Lisbon-based Vhils uses the so-called scratch-the-surface technique for his works of art. In doing so, he knocks parts out of the plaster of the house and thus creates a picture. It’s an amazing technique that I’ve never seen before and it makes for an interesting picture.

Street Art Tour through Porto to the “Faceless Madonna

Our next port of call was the Parque das Virtudes. A beautiful terraced city park where you can find a quiet place to relax and we discovered a mural rather by chance. On one of the bounding walls, two eyes looked out at us from a woman’s face.

If you leave the park at its upper exit, you will find yourself on Rua de Azevedo de Albuquerque, which you follow to the right. After a few metres, you come to a great viewpoint over the Douro. When we turned around to the side of the houses, we could see a long mural by the Portuguese artist Hazul on one of the walls. He has a very distinctive style, which we discovered on several more houses during our time in Porto.

Here he left the mural “Faceless Madonna”. After we finally discovered the Madonna in the curved forms, we had to realise that she is unfortunately no longer faceless. If you feel like a beer here, you should definitely make a stop at the MUSA. The beer from their own brewery is really very good.

Rua das Flores

For us, it was on to one of the most famous shopping streets in the historic old town. In the Rua das Flores, small shops and restaurants are lined up next to each other, and visitors to the city stroll along the street. Few people pay attention to the electricity and distribution boxes in the street. These have been colourfully designed by various artists. The motifs are as varied as the artists themselves, sometimes modern, sometimes political, and there are also traditional paintings to be seen.

Fortunately, we didn’t just look at the colourful boxes, but also at the houses and street corners. In the process, we discovered the painting with the running children and a dove of peace at one point and also saw one of the most famous murals in the city.

Station Trindiade

Trinidade station is the end point of the second stage of our street art tour in Porto.

At the car park opposite the station is the first graffiti wall in the city to be released by the city. Since 2014, you can see the image of a man here. This is the father of the artist Mr. Dheo, who comes from Porto.

If you need a short “walking break”, you can hop on the metro here and go to Faria Guimarães station.

Section 3: Street Art Tour in Porto

Those who have taken the metro to the starting point of this stage begin the tour at Rua do Paraiso in the direction of Lapa Church. The walkers, following our route on the map, also meet Rua do Paraiso.

The path leads past the Lapa church and the church cemetery. If you are lucky, you will pass by there just when the doors of the church are open. It is worth taking a look inside. I found the small cemetery, which is laid out in two terraces, even more interesting. There are some beautiful graves to be seen here.

Opposite the church is a hospital, which we pass on the left. Here you can discover various street art pictures on some walls.

Finally, you reach Lapa station. Here you have the option of shortening the route by taking the metro to Casa da Música station. The station is right next to a large square, over which countless cars drive at all times of the day. We walked an easy route along a main road and thus arrived at the star-shaped square.

Around the Casa da Música

In the middle of the square is an impressive monument and on one of the exit roads is the Casa da Música. It is worth taking a look inside the modern building.

Very close to the square is a large cemetery. If you walk along Rua do Monsenhor Fonseca Soares, you come to the last mural of our street art tour in Porto A great picture of comic book characters adorns a house wall.

A tip to finish off: Near the square is the Bom Sucesso food hall, where you can have an excellent meal. For us, this was the ideal end to the street art tour in Porto.

Finds off the beaten track

We also discovered a few really impressive murals off the route. Often they were somewhat hidden or simply too far away from the current route. Nevertheless, we would like to show them.