Palácio da Bolsa, Porto

Palácio da Bolsa is a historic Porto palace built for the city’s Commercial Association. Notice the formal rhythm of its façade, which gives commerce the bearing of civic ceremony. After a fire destroyed the convent cloisters during the Liberal Wars, Queen Mary the Second gave the ruins to Porto’s merchants in 1841.

Construction began in October 1842, and Joaquim da Costa Lima Júnior supplied the project’s overall design. The building speaks in Neoclassical language, borrowing the balanced grandeur of older classical models. Its interiors took far longer to complete, reaching completion in 1910.

Within, the Nations’ Courtyard is covered by an octagonal metal dome with glass panels, while the Arab Room uses a nineteenth-century Moorish-revival manner and receives visiting heads of state. Palácio da Bolsa has been a National Monument since 1982.