Serralves park spans 18 hectares and is constituted by a wide variety of magnificent, harmoniously interconnected spaces: Formal gardens, woodlands, and a traditional farm. Designed by the architect Jacques Greber in the 1930s, it constitutes a singular reference within Portugal’s landscape heritage.
Some highlights about Serralves Park, in Porto (Portugal)
R. Dom João de Castro 210, 4150-417
Porto, Portugal
Coordinates: 41.159896, -8.659931
Open in Google Maps
Check serralves.pt
Web: serralves.pt
E-mail: serralves@serralves.pt
Phone: 0035 1 226 156 500
From the nearest place to the site:
Metro: Use lines: Blue (A), Red (B), Green (C), Yellow (D) - Transit at the Trindade Station, and Violet (E). Exit at the Casa da Música Station, with connection via the buses 201, 203, 502 and 504 at the Boavista Roundabout.
Bus: Line 201 (from 6 am to 9pm) Sá da Bandeira > Viso | Line 203 (from 6 am to 9pm) Marquês > Castelo do Queijo | Line 502 (from 6 am to 1 am) Bolhão > Matosinhos Mercado | Line 504 (from 6 am to 00:45 am) Boavista > Norteshoppin.
Train: The Urban trains link Porto to the cities of Aveiro, Ovar, Espinho, Ermelo, Valongo, Paredes, Famalicão, Braga, Guimaraes and Santo Tirso. On arrival go to the underground station Campanhã using lines A, B, C or E to Metro Station Casa da Música.
The origin of Serralves Park dates back to 1923 when Carlos Alberto Cabral, the 2nd Count of Vizela, inherited the Quinta do Lordelo estate, the family’s summer residence in the Rua de Serralves (which was then on the outskirts of Oporto). The estate’s history can be divided into three key periods: The contours of the garden at the end of the 19th century when it formed part of the Quinta do Lordelo and Quinta do Mata-Sete estates, the garden designed by Jacques Gréber for Serralves Villa, and the landscaping of the Museum of Contemporary Art.
The Quinta do Mata-Sete estate, also owned by the family and inherited by the Count of Vizela’s brother, was included within this enlargement process by swapping urban properties for land, in order to extend the state. When the estate was included within the property, it already featured several buildings – a hunting pavilion, a barn, olive press and farm manager’s house.
After visiting the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris, Carlos Alberto Cabral decided to carry out an intervention in the estate. He invited the architect, Jacques Gréber to design the new garden. The project, whose designs date from 1932, is characterised by a mildly Art Deco, modernised classicism, influenced by French gardens of the 16th and 17th centuries, integrating several elements of the original garden, in particular the lake, together with the farming and irrigation structures of the properties acquired in the interim period.
The Serralves Garden, as designed by Jacques Gréber, was considered to be one of the first examples of gardening art in Portugal of the first half of the twentieth century, and was the only garden built during this period by a private individual in Portugal, on the basis of a landscape architecture project.
After the property was sold, in the early 1950s, to Delfim Ferreira, Count of Riba d’Ave, the Park remained its overall structure to the present day. After the Portuguese State acquired the property in 1986, several interventions were made in order to resolve the most urgent situations and enabled the park to be opened to the public in a staggered fashion, under the supervision of the landscape architect, Teresa Andresen a member of the Installation Committee who then assumed the position of Park Director after the Foundation was set up.
The birth of the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, in 1999 represented another key moment in the history of the Park, via a new intervention in the landscape. The museum was installed in a lateral portion of land, formely occupied by a vegetable garden and orange grove and was overseen by the landscape artist, João Gomes da Silva (with the collaboration of Erika Skabar), who was invited by Álvaro Siza Vieira. The history of the place, its sustainability and topography were structural elements in the project that took into account the presence of the new building and its programme and uses.
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.
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.
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.
The Serralves Museum is the foremost museum for contemporary art in Portugal, uniquely sited in the grounds of the Serralves Estate, which also comprises a Park and a Villa. Through its collection, temporary exhibitions, performance, education and public programmes, publishing initiatives, and national and international collaborations, the Museum fosters the understanding and appreciation of contemporary art and culture.
Introducing the work of the most important artists working today to diverse publics, strengthening ties with the local community, and encouraging reflection on the relationship between art and the environment that is intrinsic to the context of Serralves, are central to the Museum´s mission.
Monographic and thematic exhibitions of established and emerging artists and the Serralves Collection are featured as part of a changing programme in the Museum galleries. The Serralves Villa and Park are also privileged sites for the presentation of special exhibitions, commissions and Collection displays, together with travelling exhibitions organized in collaboration with cultural partners in Portugal and abroad. A dynamic programme of cinema, contemporary dance, music and performance is presented in the Auditorium and other spaces of the Museum.
The Auditorium and the Museum Library are also host to conversations, lectures, symposia in which the public can participate in discussions and debates on artistic and cultural issues of our time.
Type of Historical Garden: 20th century park (art deco influenced)