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THE GARRETT TOUR

The second son of António Bernardo da Silva and Ana Augusta de Almeida Leitão was born on 4 February 1799 in Porto. He was given the name João. In 1818 he adopted the surnames Almeida Garrett.

He lived in the City of the Virgin until 1804, and then moved with his family to the Quinta do Castelo, in Gaia. In 1809 French troops were again threatening to invade the kingdom and the family decided to move to Lisbon and soon thereafter to Angra do Heroísmo, in the Azores, where they had properties. There, Bishop Dom Frei Alexandre da Sagrada Família, his uncle, brought him up.

In 1816 he left for Coimbra, where he enrolled in the Faculty of Law. He departed for Lisbon in 1821, and tried to establish himself as an author and civil servant. The change in the political regime (Vilafrancada) led Garrett to exile in England. From there, he moved to France, where he published the poems Camões, in 1825, and Dona Branca, in 1926. On returning to Portugal in June 1828, Dom Miguel was acclaimed as absolute King. Almeida Garrett, an opponent of the regime, was again forced into exile in England and France.

He returned to political activity in 1832 in the island of Terceira (on the archipelago of the Azores). Dom Pedro organised a "liberal" army, which later landed in Mindelo, with Garrett as a soldier.

The Liberals' victory opened up a new future for him. Sá da Bandeira and Passos Manuel recognised his value and put him in charge of several projects. In 1837 he was appointed Inspector General of National Theatres and Shows, and elected as a Representative to São Bento. Only the city of Porto, for which he drew up the decree that awarded it the additional title of Invicta (Unvanquished), never elected him as a Representative. This was because he referred to the city as "that large village" in the poem he wrote in his youth, As Férias (1818).

In 1852 he received the title of Viscount and was elected as a Peer of the Realm. On reaching the age of 53, he left public life so that he could concentrate on his great loves - Literature, Theatre, and his daughter Adelaide. He died, prematurely, in Lisbon, on 9 December 1854, as one of the Unvanquished City's most illustrious sons.

1.	The house where Almeida Garrett was born

Rua Dr. Barbosa de Castro no. 37-41
(by the Cordoaria Gardens)

This street was known from 1679 to 1920 as Rua do Calvário. For many years it had no pavement and was made of hard-packed earth with the houses constructed out of alignment. João Baptista de Almeida Garrett was born in this house on 4 February 1799 and only resided there for five years, until 1804, when his parents moved to Gaia.

The house is a building with seventeenth century characteristics, consisting of a ground floor, another three floors, and an attic. In 1864 the Porto's City Council placed an oval plaster medallion, decorated with laurel leaf garlands and an inscription in honour of his memory, in the centre of the first floor.

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2.	São José das Taipas Church

By the Jardim da Cordoaria

The Almas (Souls) and São José das Taipas Chapel of neo-classical architecture was designed by Carlos Amarante. Its construction began in 1795, but it was only concluded in 1878.
The annual suffrage in honour of the victims of the Ponte das Barcas (Pontoon Bridge) catastrophe, which occurred during the Second French Invasion on 29 March 1809, is held at this church. The Garrett family abandoned the city before the Invasion. Up to 1909 the fraternity still went in procession to the Ribeira (riverfront area) after the annual exequies.

The main façade is divided into three sections by pilasters. The central section has a door and a large window with a circular fronton. It is crowned by another fronton depicting an occulus with a garland on its tympanum. Two urns at the sides and a cross in the middle complete the façade. It has a recessed tower and the interior consists of a single nave, covered by a barrel vault, with unadorned stuccoes. A painting in remembrance of the Ponte das Barcas disaster and a beautiful 17th-century crib are prominent

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3.	Statue of Dom Pedro IV on horseback

(2006) Nikola Raspop / Associação Porto Digital

Praça da Liberdade

Anatole Calmels designed the statue. It consists of a pedestal in blue limestone with two bronze embossments, on its western and eastern sides, representing the dedication of King Dom Pedro IV's heart to the city and the landing in Mindelo, in which Garrett also participated. The coats of arms of the House of Bragança and of the City of Porto are seen at the extremities. The embossments were originally in white Carrara marble, but they were replaced for reasons of preservation. The originals are now found at the Headquarters of the 1st Northern Military Region. Dom Pedro is shown dressed in the uniform of a Colonel of the Caçadores 5 (5th Gunners) offering the Constitutional Charter to the City. The statue is made from a bronze and copper alloy. It was inaugurated on 19 October 1866, in the presence of Dom Fernando and Dom Luís I.

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4.	Statue of Almeida Garrett

Praça do Município

It was erected in front of the Porto's City Hall during the Commemorations of the First Centenary of the Death of Almeida Garrett. It was sculptured in bronze by Barata Feyo in 1954 and placed on a granite plinth.

The construction of the monument fulfilled the city's long expectations, embodied for decades by the Porto's Commercial Athenaeum.

A certain public reaction to the "modern" characteristics of the statue was recorded at the time, as often happens with prime works of art: "(...) the Master Sculptor Barata Feyo, creator of this great sculptural piece that is the monument to Garrett. It is possible, even natural, that its true value still has not been appreciated. It is, perhaps, a difficult passage for some to read, being used to admiring delicate detailed modelling, and therefore being surprised by the plasticity of the figure, sliced into great constructive levels. (...) The monument (...) cannot be justly judged while it is not dully felt." (Stated by Councillor Manuel de Figueiredo, in a City Council session, on 16 November 1954).

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5.	S. Lourenço Church and College (Grilos)

Largo Dr. Pedro Vitorino (by the Cathedral)

Almeida Garrett was quartered in this College as volunteer number 72, during the Siege of Porto, from 9 July 1832 on.

The church was constructed in the 16th century, having been started in 1577 in the mannerist style. Baltasar Álvares, who altered Afonso Álvares' initial design, directed the work.

A monumental façade accumulates frontons, entablatures, cornices, pilasters, and windows. The two towers, decorated with large volutes, have brick cupolas. The interior has a nave covered by a perfectly curved vault granite circular, with panelled ceilings. A panelled semi-circular vault, with stone memorial panels covers the chancel. The tomb of Friar Luís Álvares de Távora is found under an arch on the left-side wall.

With the expulsion of the Society of Jesus from Portugal in 1759, the University of Coimbra took possession of the church and the convent, having then sold them to the Barefooted Augustinians, Grilos Friars, who stayed there from 1780 to 1832. Later, the Seminário Maior (Higher Seminary) started operating in the convent. The church has recently been subjected to a general restoration.

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6.	Porta or Arco de Sant'Ana

Rua de Santana (by the Cathedral)

The old gate of the city wall was called "Arco de Sant'Ana" (St. Anne's Arch) after 1524. The gate should therefore have borne the image of St. Anne since the mid-16th century.
Sousa Reis left a description of the Arch that was immortalised by Garrett: "All of St. Anne's Arch was of modern architecture, and erected as I have said, almost in the middle of the street that one climbs to get to the Largo do Collegio de São Lourenço, commonly called Grillos, and covered the narrow space of the street: above it was an oratory, which had a glazed window facing the higher side, or the referred Grillos Monastery; it contained the image of the Saint after which it was named (...). The arch was demolished in the month of August 1821(...)."

The gate is all that remains of the St. Anne's Arch, which when opened, on its left, gave access to the niche where the image of St. Anne, the Virgin and the Infant Jesus was. After the demolition of the arch, it was sheltered in the São Crispim Chapel.

The 17th-century gate, cut into the granite wall, can still be seen today, with the few steps that give access to the image of St. Anne, which was recently placed there, as part of the restoration work undertaken by the Porto's City Council.

Almeida Garrett started the historic novel O Arco de Sant'Ana: crónica portuguesa - Manuscrito achado no Convento dos Grilos por um soldado do Corpo Académico (St. Anne's Arch: Porto's chronicle - A Manuscript found in the Grilos Convent by a soldier in the Academic Corps), whilst he was quartered here during the Siege of Porto (1832-33).

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7.	Santo Ildefonso Church

Praça da Batalha

Almeida Garrett was baptised in this church on 10 February 1799, with João Baptista da Silva and Antónia Margarida Garrett as his godparents.

The somewhat simple façade, with its granite pilasters enhancing its verticality, has a portal surmounted by a fronton and flanked by two small windows, with a similar type of fronton. At the top of the façade, in the centre, there is a niche with the patron's image, and two bell towers decorated with dentils and completed with spheres, frontons, and a cross. In 1932 Jorge Colaço covered the walls with tiles, bearing scenes from the life of St. Ildefonso and allegories of the Eucharist. The stairway that gives access to the church was built at a later stage, as well as the obelisk, later moved, whose presence was intended to establish a balance with the Clérigos Church. Presently the obelisk is found on the left side of the building.

Other monuments to see:

• Sé Catedral
• Casa do Cabido
• Museu de Arte Sacra
• Casa-Museu de Guerra Junqueiro

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“O! Gentlemen, if the citizens of Porto were as scrupulous calculating their obligations, if they also, when their fatherland asks for assistance, restfully calculated at their counters, as an exact proportion of the inhabitants of this Kingdom, the predetermined share of sacrifices that only they were to be charged with – where would Portugal’s liberty be, where would its independence now be, - what would be of all of us, of this country, of its name, of its glory, of its existence, if the People of Porto did not have in their hearts that which I wish to transmit to yours, (...).”

Almeida Garrett’s speech in the Session (of the Courts) on 11 August (1837), about the Taxes of the Porto’s City Council.