Vímara Peres, a Galician count from Gallaecia, and a vassal of the King of Asturias, Léon and Galicia, Alfonso III, was given the fief of Portucale, and the surrounding areas.

[22] In 1093, Teresa of León, illegitimate daughter of the king Alfonso VI of Castile, married Henry of Burgundy, bringing the County of Portugal as a dowry.

[30][31] This expedition by the king and his fleet, which included Prince Henry, was followed by navigation and exploration along the western coast of Africa, initiating the Portuguese Age of Discovery.

To counter this dominance, Prime Minister Marquis of Pombal established a monopolistic Portuguese firm to receive all the wines from the Douro valley.

The Ponte D. Maria, a railway bridge, was inaugurated on 4 November of 1877;[40] it was considered a feat of wrought iron engineering and was designed by Gustave Eiffel, notable for his Parisian tower.

The neoclassicism and romanticism of the 19th and 20th centuries also added interesting monuments to the landscape of the city, like the magnificent Stock Exchange Palace (Palácio da Bolsa), the Hospital of Saint Anthony, the Municipality, the buildings in the Liberdade Square and the Avenida dos Aliados, the tile-adorned São Bento railway station and the gardens of the Crystal Palace (Palácio de Cristal).

The population in Porto municipality dropped by nearly 100,000 since the 1980s, but the number of permanent residents in the outskirts and satellite towns has grown strongly.

The building formerly hosting the stock exchange is currently one of the city's touristic attractions, with the Salão Árabe (Arab Room in English) being its major highlight.

[citation needed] Indeed, sumach, dry fruits and nuts and the Douro olive oils sustained prosperous exchanges between the region and Porto.

However, the greatest lever to interregional trade relations resulted from the commercial dynamics of the Port wine (Vinho do Porto) agro-industry.

[citation needed] It decidedly bolstered the complementary relationship between the large coastal urban centre, endowed with open doors to the sea, and a region with significant agricultural potential, especially in terms of the production of extremely high quality fortified wines, known by the world-famous label Port.

The development of Porto was also closely connected with the left margin of River Douro in Vila Nova de Gaia, where is located the amphitheater-shaped slope with the Port wine cellars.

Within a two-hour drive of Porto's airport, there are four Unesco World Heritage sites and popular Spanish tourist hotspots such as Santiago de Compostela.

[64] Nevertheless, the validity of this study was questioned by some Porto notable figures (such as local politicians and businesspersons) who argued that the city proper does not function independently but in conurbation with other municipalities.

[67][68][69] Over the last few years, Porto has experienced significant tourism increases, which may be partly linked to the Ryanair hub at Francisco de Sá Carneiro Airport.

[73] The most popular tourist attractions in the city include the Porto Cathedral, Dom Luís I Bridge, Café Majestic, Livraria Lello and Jardins do Palácio de Cristal.

The large panels of azulejo tile were designed by Jorge Colaço; the murals represent moments in the country's history and rural scenes showing the people of various regions.

Line D (yellow) currently runs from Hospital S. João in the north to Vila d'Este on the southern side of the Douro river.

The average amount of time people spend commuting with public transit in Porto, for example to and from work, on a weekday is 47 minutes.

[84] In the scope of these events, the construction of the major concert hall space Casa da Música, designed by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, was initiated and finished in 2005.

The DCEU film The Suicide Squad (2021) written and directed by James Gunn based on a Suicide Squad story, shows the city twice in the movie, in which shows us Daniela Melchior a Portuguese actress, who portrays Ratcatcher 2 in which the character is the heart of the film, a Portuguese version of Ratcatcher.

[85] Many renowned Portuguese music artists and cult bands such as GNR, Rui Veloso, Sérgio Godinho, Clã, Pluto, Azeitonas and Ornatos Violeta are from the city or its metropolitan area.

[89] Porto was the birthplace in 1856 of Susanna Roope Dockery, an Anglo-Portuguese watercolour painter who produced many paintings of the city and the people and landscape of the surrounding rural areas.

An Englishman, Frederick William Flower, moved to Oporto in 1834 at the age of 19 to work in the wine trade and subsequently became a pioneer of photography in Portugal.

It is also home to two earners of the Pritzker Architecture Prize (two former students of the aforementioned school): Álvaro Siza Vieira and Eduardo Souto de Moura.

This historic area includes the cathedral with its Romanesque choir, the neoclassical Stock Exchange and the Manueline-style Church of Santa Clara.

Like in almost all coastal areas of the Portuguese littoral with wide availability of fresh fish, sardinha assada (grilled sardine) is also a usual, classic main dish.

Due to the recognition, potential for employment and higher revenue, there are many students from the entire country, particularly from the north of Portugal, attending a college or university in Porto.

As the most popular city in Portugal for ERASMUS students, most universities have facilities to assist foreigners in learning the language [citation needed].

Located a few hundred metres away from the old grounds, it became impossible to build on this plot of land due to a large underground water pocket, and, consequently, they moved to the Estádio do Mar (owned by Leixões S.C.) in the neighboring Matosinhos municipality.