Porto's Art and Soul: The art-loving route

This is the House Museum of Fernando de Castro. He was the son of a merchant of Porto, with his shop at the end of Rua das Flores at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. 

This commercial house sold wallpaper, mirrors, crystals, and glass, and represented the French company "Saint Gobain", which was created to help decorate Versailles.

Fernando was a collector, poet, caricaturist, and designer who lived in this house in the last years of the 19th century and the first half of the latter. During his lifetime he saw Portugal turn from a constitutional monarchy to a republic, the first world war, and the first decades of the dictatorship.

 Especially in this last period loads of medieval buildings were ripped out of their gilded woodwork from later centuries.

As a lover of art and culture, he made his way through art dealers and antiquaries and transformed his house into a living work of art.

Between the saintly and the profane, this is one of the most well-hidden gems of Porto!