Pérgula do Molhe, Porto

Along the seafront, Pérgula do Molhe is a cement pergola with a balustrade, set beside Praia da Luz and the gardens of Avenida de Montevideu. Its repeated posts and rails give the promenade a long, rhythmic frame for the Atlantic. It was built in nineteen thirty as part of a municipal scheme to improve and beautify Avenida do Brasil.

António Enes Baganha, a leading artist in this field, carried out the work, which cost about fifty-three thousand escudos. Salt air damages its reinforced concrete, so Porto funded restoration work in two thousand eight. That campaign repaired the pergola and its balustrade, while the walls facing the sea received a coating designed to make graffiti easier to wash away. As you walk along the rail, notice how the open framework breaks the shoreline into changing views.