I’ve always had an interest in architecture, but until I moved to Portugal it was mostly latent except when I was travelling. I photographed buildings often in Toronto but they didn’t span many eras — most were new. (To give you an idea, this is a list of buildings in Greater Toronto older than 1850; there are only 116. I did, however, shoot a wedding at the second-oldest building, The Old Mill.)
Armazéns Cunhas is my favourite of the Art Deco-style buildings in Porto thus far — there’s something about peacocks that draw me in. Architect Manuel Marques (1890-1956) and his associates Amoroso Lopes and Coelho Freitas worked together to combine three 19th century buildings into a single Art Deco façade in Praça de Gomes Teixeira. Armazéns means ‘warehouses’ and Armazéns Cunhas was originally known for its wedding and christening outfits, founded by Tito Cunha in 1960. (I’m still researching to find out how the building was used before 1960.) Today it’s a department store.
Some other notable Art Deco-style buildings in Porto are the Coliseu, Serralves, and Garagem Passos Manuel. I’ll be on the lookout for more Art Deco buildings to photograph to write a follow-up to this post. I’m also putting together a post of my favourite Art Nouveau-style buildings in Porto.
February 3, 2016
Album: Portugal [Winter 2015/2016]
Possibly related posts:
- Porto’s Ponte Luís I By Night After two consecutive weekends of tour guiding, I am seeing more of the Luís I Bridge than ever, which is just dandy since I love to shoot it. I would...
- Porto’s Lighthouse: Farol Da Boa Nova Porto’s Farol Da Boa Nova, also known as Farol de Leça as it is located in Leça da Palmeira, is the second tallest lighthouse in Portugal after Aveiro’s Farol da Barra. We...
- Clérigos Tower With Bling I’ve taken a stack of photos of Porto the past couple of days — mostly yesterday — but the weather today was far too good to spend indoors editing them....
- Porto’s Café Majestic If you follow the tourist guidebooks, most — if not all — point to Café Majestic as a place not to miss while in Porto. Whether or not you will...
- Open House Porto 2015: Casa Da Arquitectura Casa Da Arquitectura is co-producer of Open House Porto, this year being the first edition of this architectural project. We decided to include the Casa itself in our round of...
