Porto Cathedral

The Sé, Porto's cathedral, stands on the Penaventosa hill, the original core of the city, where the first settlement grew up above the river. Begun in the twelfth century, it still looks more like a fortress than a church from the outside, with two square towers topped by battlements and a rose window between them, and its broad terrace, the Terreiro da Sé, is one of the best free viewpoints in Porto, looking down over the jumbled roofs of the Barredo quarter to the river and Gaia. The building has been altered in every era since. The nave is austere Romanesque, but the chapels glitter with Baroque gilt and silver, including a celebrated silver altarpiece in the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament. On the north side, Nicolau Nasoni added an elegant open loggia in the eighteenth century, and the cathedral's Baroque episcopal palace, next door, dominates the skyline. The highlight of a paid visit is the Gothic cloister, built in the fourteenth century and later lined with blue-and-white azulejo panels depicting scenes from the Song of Songs and the life of the Virgin; a granite staircase, also decorated with tiles, leads to an upper terrace and to rooms housing the cathedral treasury and religious art. The entry ticket covers the cloister, the museum spaces and access to the tower for a view over the city. The church itself is a place of worship, so visits pause during services, and modest dress is expected. It opens daily, with hours varying by season.

History in layers: the cathedral was founded when Porto was a small episcopal town, and it was here, tradition says, that King João I married Philippa of Lancaster in 1387, an event remembered in the São Bento tiles a few minutes away. Over the centuries, Gothic, Baroque and later restorations reshaped it, and in the twentieth century a campaign to return the building to a purer medieval appearance stripped away some later additions and demolished houses around it to create the large open terrace. The pillory-style column on the terrace is a twentieth-century reconstruction, but the views and the setting are timeless.

How to visit: start on the terrace for the view, then enter the church, which is free, to see the nave and the silver altarpiece. Buy your ticket for the cloister and upper levels, either online or at the desk, and give yourself an hour to explore the tiled galleries, the chapter house and the treasury, before climbing for the view. Mornings are quieter; afternoons bring tour groups. The cathedral sits at the top of the old town, so it makes a natural starting point for a downhill walk: through the Barredo quarter's steep lanes to the Ribeira, or along the old walls to the Luís I Bridge's upper deck.

Nearby: the Casa-Museu Guerra Junqueiro, a small house museum, is a few steps away; the medieval Rua de Dom Hugo leads around the back of the cathedral; and the Ponte Luís I upper deck begins just below. The terrace is also a fine place for sunset if you cannot make it across to Serra do Pilar. Combined tickets with the Clérigos Tower, sold online, are good value if you plan to climb both towers.