Porto Cathedral, the Sé

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Porto Cathedral looks like a castle from outside, and visitors who come only for the terrace miss the better half. The church is a Romanesque and Gothic structure of the 12th and 13th centuries that still has its battlements, and beside it a tiled Gothic cloister and a chapter house hold most of what there is to see. It is open every day from 9:00, to 18:30 in summer and 17:30 in winter.

The cathedral is rated 4.6 out of 5 from 39,073 reviews. It stands on the Terreiro da Sé, 310 m from the tiled hall of São Bento station and 350 m from the Dom Luís I Bridge, so it is the natural stop on the walk from the upper town down to the river.

A fortress that became a church of every century

The mistake is to read the building as one style. The Sé do Porto, to give it its Portuguese name, is Romanesque and Gothic in its bones and baroque in much of its skin. The structure dates from the 12th and 13th centuries, and the rose window on the front is 12th-century work. Inside, the nave still has the look of a fortress church.

Later centuries added to it without hiding it. A lantern tower went up over the crossing in the second half of the 16th century. The chancel was rebuilt in 1610 and holds a gilded altarpiece from the second quarter of the 18th century, counted a key work of the Portuguese baroque. Then came Nicolau Nasoni, the architect of the Clérigos Tower, who in 1736 gave the cathedral the loggia on its side, facing the city.

The church was heavily restored in the 1930s. What stands today is a medieval frame carrying four hundred years of additions, and the pleasure is in telling them apart.

Getting in

The mistake is to arrive during Mass and expect to walk around. Mass is said at 11:00, and the church is a working cathedral before it is a sight. Come before or after.

The visit has three parts with one timetable: the church, the museum and the cloisters. Porto Cathedral tickets come with the one-hour guided tour, which is the way to book ahead. The diocese publishes its timetable on its page for the cathedral, in Portuguese and English.

The museum holds the cathedral's treasury: goldsmiths' work, vestments and liturgical books made for its services. It is rated 4.6 out of 5 in its own right, and its visitors mention the tiles, the cloister and the view from the tower.

The cloister and the rooms above it

The mistake is to leave after the nave. The Porto Cathedral cloister is the reason to stay: a Gothic cloister begun at the end of the 14th century and lined with seven large tile panels of scenes from the Old and New Testaments. Several bishops of Porto are buried here, and the chapel of Saint John the Evangelist, also 14th-century, holds the carved tomb of João Gordo, a Knight of Malta, with his effigy and a Last Supper.

A grand staircase by Nasoni, finished in 1736, climbs to the upper level. On its landings stand a bronze lectern of 1616 and the bell of the old city clock, dated 1697. The upper terrace has more tile panels, of country and mythological scenes, and a panoramic view.

The chapter house has tile panels by Vital Rifarto, and its ceiling was painted by Giovanni Battista Pachini in 1737 with fourteen moral allegories set around Saint Michael, the patron of the chapter.

Hours, and what to look for inside

The mistake is to plan the visit for the last half hour of a winter afternoon. Porto Cathedral opening hours follow the season: 9:00 to 18:30 in summer and 9:00 to 17:30 in winter, for the church, the museum and the cloisters alike. The cathedral closes at Christmas and at Easter.

Inside the church, three things repay a search. In the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament stands the silver altar, a very large piece worked in stages from 1632 into the 19th century and counted a landmark of Portuguese silverwork. In the transept, since 1984, stands the 14th-century statue of Our Lady of Vandoma, the patron of the city. And by the doors are the great holy-water fonts of the late 17th century.

There are three organs to find as well: one of the 17th century and one of the 19th beside the chapter's stalls, and a large modern instrument installed in the high choir in 1985.

A church of the 12th and 13th centuries that kept its battlements.

The cathedral in a walk

The mistake is to climb to the cathedral, look, and climb back down the same way. It sits on a line. São Bento station is 310 m to one side, about five minutes on foot. The Dom Luís I Bridge is 350 m to the other, about six minutes, and its upper deck leaves from the cathedral's side of the hill and crosses to the Jardim do Morro in Gaia.

That gives two ways on. Cross the upper deck for the view back at the cathedral and the old town; the trains of line D of the Metro do Porto share the deck with people on foot. Or go down to the river: the Ribeira quay at Cais da Estiva is 394 m beyond the bridge, and the Ribeira page covers the waterfront.

For the wider plan of a day in the old town, see things to do in Porto.

Common questions

What are the opening hours of Porto Cathedral?

9:00 to 18:30 in summer and 9:00 to 17:30 in winter, for the church, the museum and the cloisters. It closes at Christmas and Easter.

How old is Porto Cathedral?

The structure dates from the 12th and 13th centuries, with large baroque alterations in the 17th and 18th centuries and a major restoration in the 1930s.

What did Nasoni build at the cathedral?

The loggia on the side facing the city and the grand staircase to the upper level of the cloister, both finished in 1736.

How far is the cathedral from São Bento station?

310 m, about five minutes on foot. The Dom Luís I Bridge is a further 350 m.