Jardins do Palácio de Cristal (Crystal Palace Gardens)

What to see in the Jardins do Palácio de Cristal

The best part of the gardens is the south side, where the slope drops to the Douro. Émile David, a German landscape gardener, laid them out in the 1860s.

The viewpoints over the Douro

From the main viewpoint the river opens out both ways. Upriver you see the Serra do Pilar monastery on its hill in Gaia, and down on the Porto quay the old customs house.

Downriver, Gaia’s waterfront runs all the way to the river mouth. The Arrábida bridge, a single concrete arch from the 1960s, stands out at the end.

The peacocks and the camellia wood

Peacocks wander freely all over the gardens, and the males fan their tails out on the grass.

The planting includes tulip trees, magnolias, Norfolk Island pines and fan palms. On the west side there’s a wood of camellias, at its best in winter and spring.

There’s a rose garden too, and small themed gardens of aromatic and medicinal plants. In the Garden of Feelings stands A Dor (Grief), by the Gaia-born sculptor António Teixeira Lopes.

The Super Bock Arena and the Porto 360 climb

In the middle of the gardens, where the palace once stood, a concrete dome sits among the cedars. It’s the Super Bock Arena, Pavilhão Rosa Mota, and today it’s a concert hall.

You can also go up on it. The Porto 360, run by the arena, is a guided climb to the top of the dome, with a view right round the city and the river.

The groups are small, and the climbs don’t go up when rain is forecast. Children must be at least six, and the dome isn’t accessible to wheelchair users.

The Chapel of Carlos Alberto and the library

At the end of the avenue of lime trees stands a small granite chapel with a rose window. Look up at the columns: the initials C.A. are carved on the capitals.

They stand for Charles Albert, King of Piedmont-Sardinia, whose son would become the first king of Italy. After losing a war with Austria in 1849, he gave up the throne, went into exile in Porto and died here that July.

The chapel was raised in his honour five years after his death, in 1854.

On the same avenue is the Almeida Garrett library, named after the Porto-born writer who led Portuguese Romanticism. It opened in 2001, and the city museum puts on exhibitions in the foyer of its auditorium.

Jardins do Palácio de Cristal: opening hours and free entry

Entry to the gardens is free, with no ticket and nothing to book. You pay for the Porto 360 climb and for the Romantic Museum next door, at €4.

Parts of the gardens close during big events, such as the book fair and concerts at the arena.

On foot, the gardens are about 18 minutes west of the Clérigos Tower and 23 from São Bento station. Trams 1 and 18 run to Massarelos, by the river below the gardens.

Bus 201, which runs from Aliados in the centre out to Serralves, is one of more than a dozen city lines that stop close by.

Coming from the Clérigos Tower, you can climb it before you set off: it’s in the Porto Highlights Pass, from €29.50, with the Cathedral and a river cruise.

The Crystal Palace that gave the gardens their name

The palace itself is long gone. Thomas Dillen Jones, an English architect, designed it in granite, iron and glass after London’s Crystal Palace, and Portugal’s King Luís I opened it on 18 September 1865.

It was built for Porto’s International Exhibition, which filled its 150-metre hall with more than 3,000 exhibitors.

The palace stood for 86 years. The city bought it with the gardens in 1933 and pulled it down in 1951, fifteen years after its London model burned.

In its place went the domed pavilion by the architect José Carlos Loureiro, built for the 1952 Roller Hockey World Championship. The games went ahead before the roof was done, and the dome was only finished in 1954.

In 1991 the hall took the name of Rosa Mota, the Porto marathon runner who won Olympic gold in Seoul in 1988. Since its 2019 renovation it has been the Super Bock Arena, after the beer brewed just north of Porto, in Leça do Balio.

After the Jardins do Palácio de Cristal: the Romantic Museum and the river

The Romantic Museum is right next door, and from there the streets run down to the river at Massarelos.