Old Markets of Porto – those you can’t visit

?-1909
Praça Guilherme Gomes Fernandes

The Mercado da Santa Teresa was located in the current Praça Guilherme Gomes Fernandes and was known by most as the Feira do Pão (Bread Fair). In fact, the actual square adopted the name of Praça do Pão (Bread Square). There is no accurate date for the beginning of this market, however, records already make reference in the early 19th century.

The picturesque wooden stalls occupied all of the square’s center and created a hustle and bustle all week long. The local bakers came here to sell their products, however, the bakers from Valongo and Avintes were undoubtedly the most prolific. Valongo, a land of great grain plantations and strong mills had for centuries been known as the land of bread. Thus, taking advantage of Porto’s need for quality bread, the Valongo’s bakers packed their donkeys with baskets of bread and rode to the city. Meanwhile, bakers from Avintes (in Vila Nova de Gaia), that at the time already produced the magnificent broa de Avintes, sailed through the river Douro in small valboeiro boats and disembarked in the “Escadas das Padeiras” or Baker’s Steps, at the Cais da Ribeira, unloading baskets of bread and broa to sell in the market (see below).

It is known that the bestsellers were regueifa (a typical long white bread, with a soft interior and delicious crust), the broa de Avintes (a farmhouse rye and corn bread), pão podre (a sweet bread), pão molete (which is said to have appeared during the French invasions, on the account of General Moulet), tosta azeda, pão coado, and several biscuits. Curiously, the famous Padaria Ribeiro was founded in 1878, at the time where the Praça de Santa Teresa held the Bread Fair.

The end of the Mercado de Santa Teresa was dictated in 26 of May of 1909 when the bakers were transferred to the Mercado do Anjo.

1839-1952
Campo do Olival

The Mercado do Anjo appeared due to the will of the City Hall in concentrating the several fairs that were spread throughout the city center into one spot, in order to facilitate monitoring and ensuring the cleanliness of the city’s spaces.

A plot of land was chosen next to the Torre dos Clérigos and the Porta do Olival. The project deemed a triangular market, with an entrance in each vertex. As was usual at the time, the market was walled in granite and surrounded by an elegant wrought iron fencing, and due to the fact that it was in a water-rich area, the market had several fountains, such as the Arca do Anjo. The interior of the market was made up of rows of iron and wood stalls covered in roof tile, and the rows were well spaced to allow the efficient flow of people and goods, and shaded by groves of leafy trees.

The City Hall soon wanted to ensure that the Mercado do Anjo was a safe, clean and pleasant place, which was no easy task, considering the hustle and bustle of buyers and sellers. In a notice made by the City Hall on the 28th of December of 1838, strict rules concerning the functioning of the market were enlisted, which stated:

“The [stalls] on the North side are for sale of salted, smoked or bagged pig meat; those of the South end are for fresh beef, veal, and lamb; those of the West are for all the edibles that, usually and by license, are sold in squares and public markets.”

The butcher’s activity was thus regulated, and of other foodstuffs excluding greens, but fresh fish was prohibited, due to the lack of adequate conditions it would have to be sold in the Mercado do Peixe:
“ (…) in this square you will not sell fresh fish, or salted, except cod; everything else, such as beef innards, will be sold in the stall next to the Casa dos Expostos, in Cordaria.”

As for vegetables, fruits and animals, it was stated:

“ (…) in the center of the square will be sold vegetables, legumes, fruits, birds and other kinds, but separate enough amongst each other in order to not cause the ruckus that always comes from having many buyers in one place.”

The notice also included the prohibition of having cattle and animals roaming free, the occupation of roofs or the dumping of trash in the fountains and tanks. The market would also have to close when the bells sounded for six o’clock, only staying open for sellers that had to stock their stalls during the night.

This market’s long life also meant that the introdution of betterments and infrastructural and landscape alterations would have to happen now and then, having the market been stuck by progress, such as gas lighting. It was also intervened by the architect Marques da Silva in 1905.

The inauguration of the Mercado do Bolhão exerted a lot of pressure to Mercado do Anjo, which lost in popularity and investment, and eventually reached a complete degradation that dictated the market’s end. The Mercado do Anjo was demolished in 1952, on its 110th anniversary.

After that, the market’s location turned into a parking lot, and afterwards into a shopping mall, only to fall into decadence for several years. More recently, a complete rehabilitation was undertaken, and the space now hold a commercial and restaurant gallery, with a gardened roof.

1888-1900 ; 1939-1978
Rua da Bolsa

The City Hall’s long-lived longing to substitute the precarious Mercado da Ribeira led to the projection of Mercado Ferreira Borges by the architect João Carlos Machado, and the construction began in 1885, coming to an end in 1888. The magnificent iron structure was made by the Companhia Aliança (Fundição de Massarelos). The market honours the name of the notorious Portuense politician, economist, and jurist José Ferreira Borges.

At the time, the sellers were very reliant in leaving the Mercado da Ribeira, thus, there was a weak adhesion to the new space. Only 22 years later, the Mercado Ferreira Borges had lost its utility as a market, and there were proposals for converting the space into a museum, such as a Colonial Museum, an Industrial Museum, a Municipal Museum or even a winter garden. However, no consensus was achieved, and thus the space was used by several different structures and for different purposes, such as an armory or a poor house. The classical beauty of this magnificent iron building stopped it from being demolished, as was considered in several occasions. Meanwhile, between 1939 and 1978 Porto’s wholesale fruit market was established in the building. The degradation of the market’s infrastructures dictated its abandonment in the late 70s, and it remained in a decadent state until its complete rehabilitation in 1983, by the same company who built it. After the rehabilitation, the space was dedicated to occasional cultural exhibitions, but without a definitive destiny.

he Mercado Ferreira Borges ended up gaining a new use when the building was given concession to Hard Club, in 2008. The construction work focused on adapting the space in a way that was completely reversible, by inserting two large black concrete structures that do not interfere with the fundamental features of the building. The old market is now a space for cultural events, concert hall, nightlife club, and also a bar and restaurant.

1849-1950
Cais dos Guindais

This market came to be in an odd manner. When the king Charles Albert of Sardinia died in his exile Porto, an alderman of the city responsible for the king’s funerary embarking requested the Alfândega do Porto (Porto’s customs) the temporary dislocation of the Mercado da Ribeira’s fish market to the Cais do Guindais (Guindais wharf). The change soon transitioned from temporary to permanent, which caused quite a hassle between the Alfândega and the City Hall, as the market conflicted with the wine’s debarkation. Meanwhile, and after solicitation, the queen D. Maria II authorizes the official establishment of the market by decree in 1851, valid until the location is needed for more pressing issues.

The market continued its activity until it was terminated by the City Hall in 1950, to perform urban interventions in the area.

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Cais da Ribeira

The Ribeira wharf had been for centuries one of the main locations for the disembarking of the groceries that supplied the city of Porto. It was here arrived that supplies such as salted cod and fresh fish, wine, vegetables and fruits, sugar, rice and spices, and all that which came from out of the city, to then be loaded and carried to its destination by ox carts. Naturally, this thriving port made the Ribeira wharf the ideal spot to form a street market, as it was also supported by several groceries. The origins of this market are not known, but the arrival of merchandise to the wharf always made an impulse towards commerce. The market did not have a building or a definitive location, but more makeshift stalls that were changed occasionally. The market changed, as expected, with the times. The Mercado da Ribeira still exists today, although in a very different version, dedicated to selling arts and crafts and pastry, and thus, not truly qualifying as the food market it once was.

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Rua Escura e Rua de S. Sebastião

The Rua Escura street market was an old market that sided the Sé of Porto, stretching from the Rua Escura to the Rua de S. Sebastião. It is now named Mercado de S. Sebastião, but it differs, amongst other reasons, from the former market due to its permanent location, for it was then a street market, where temporary stalls were made and changed from time to time. The current building was built in the 1990s, but is in need of urgent repairs, for it lacks utility and conditions for the few sellers that still prevail.