Jardins do Palácio de Cristal, Porto

Jardins do Palácio de Cristal spreads through Porto’s Massarelos parish as a place made for wandering. In the eighteen-sixties, German landscape architect Émile David designed these romantic grounds to encircle the Crystal Palace. During the nineteen-fifties, Pavilhão Rosa Mota replaced that palace.

Along Avenida das Tílias, the park’s defining promenade, you pass Almeida Garrett Municipal Library, an outdoor bandstand, and a chapel built in eighteen forty-nine by Princess de Montléart. The chapel honors her brother, King Charles Albert. Seek out the planted collections devoted to aromatic and medicinal species, as well as gardens honoring sister cities and human feelings. Viewpoints scattered through the grounds open onto the Douro and the sea.