Meninos - "A abundância", Porto

Here, on the broad central strip of Aliados, you meet A Abundância, also known as Os Meninos, one of Henrique Moreira’s sculptures. Take a quiet moment with the figures, then notice how the open stone space around them works less like a garden and more like a civic stage. You are in Porto’s principal avenue, the city’s central thoroughfare.

Aliados joins Praça da Liberdade and Praça do General Humberto Delgado as one continuous urban setting. Its name honours the nations allied in the First World War. Work on the avenue began in 1916.

Before this grand route existed, the ground was a compact tangle of short lanes and washing places, with two busy parallel streets running toward Trindade. The same day construction was launched, the city approved the present City Hall building at the uphill end, within an expansion plan for Porto’s civic centre by the English architect Barry Parker. The avenue’s middle was once planted, but it is now paved in granite blocks.

That overhaul accompanied construction of Aliados metro station and was designed by Álvaro Siza Vieira and Eduardo Souto Moura. This square has also carried immense public gatherings: Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass here in 2010 before a crowd of 120,000 to 150,000 people.