PALÁCIO DA BOLSA, OPORTO

The Palácio da Bolsa (Stock Exchange Palace) is a monument in Oporto, built in the 19^th century by the city’s Commercial Association in a neoclassical style with Palladian influences. It is located in the historical center of the city, which was declared World Heritage Site by the UNESCO.

St Francis Church

The palace is beside the St. Francis Church, which was part of the St. Francis Convent, from the 13^th century. But due to a fire in 1832, during the Portuguese Civil War, the cloisters of the convent were destroyed and the church was the only part of the complex that remained. In 1841, Queen Mary II, winner of the Civil War, donated the convent ruins to the merchants of the city, who used them to build the Commercial Association. By 1850 the palace was already finished, but the interior decoration was only completed in 1910.

The most well-known room of the palace is the Arab Room, built between 1862 and 1886, decorated in an exotic Moorish Revival style and used as a reception hall for heads of state visiting the city of Oporto.

Visit Oporto