Description

The Serralves Park is a unique example of landscape architecture in Portugal. Its mission is to deepen and spread knowledge about gardening art, landscape, the environment and biodiversity through the enjoyment of a unique place and offering a rich and dynamic cultural, educational and sensorial experience. Its mission is based on the safeguarding and enhancement of the Park’s natural and built heritage, in accordance with best management practices for historic gardens.

A bridge between neo-classicism and modernity

Serralves Park occupies an area of 18 hectares and now constitutes a fundamental part of the ecological structure of the city of Porto. Composed of a multiplicity of spaces with different characteristics, the Park results from a landscaping project, whose genesis dates back to the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, between urban and rural, occupying a privileged position in the city, in close proximity to the Douro river – the last surviving example of a Recreational Estate in the city of Porto. Forming a bridge between neo-classicism and modernity, the gardens designed by Jacques Gréber in July 1932, stand out due to the subtlety of their details and the suitable choice of different scales, benefiting from the local topographic and climatic conditions that foster the diversity of spaces and habitats found here.

Monumental style

Offering a monumental style defined by the intercontinental practice of the Beaux-Arts style, the Park adopted and reinterpreted the same model, ranging between the urban and rural, originally on the outskirts of a still expanding city, thus enabling an imaginative universe to be created that was becoming impossible in other urban centres, due to the lack of space.

The entire park exhibits a major degree of monumentality, as exemplified by the Alameda dos Liquidâmbares which links the Avenida do Marechal Gomes Costa to the large terrace overlooking the Central Parterre. This is the starting point of the grand axis that extends for about 500 meters until virtually the southern end of the property, linking the leisure zone with the Serralves farm, in a unit of great scenic wealth, made of interlocking geometric and organic spaces, including a significant contribution from the association of native and exotic species, in amazing displays.

Its heritage value was officially recognised in 2012, when the Park was listed as a “National Monument”. In addition to this ranking, it is also among the 250 most outstanding gardens in the world, integrating the list of gardens published in the book ‘The Gardener’s Garden’, by the Phaidon publishing house.