A small hotel at number 133 of the Rua de Sá da Bandeira, the last building of a row of eight, numbers 97 to 133, that the city of Porto twice set out to remodel as a single front: in 1943, to a study by the architect Homero Ferreira Dias, and in 1948, to a project by Fernando Távora, then a young municipal architect and later one of the best-known Portuguese architects of his century. The house is not protected, and we know neither when it was built nor what was carried out of those projects. This page sets out what the municipal archive records.
At a glance
The Rua de Sá da Bandeira was opened from 1836 through the grounds of the former convent of the Congregados and extended northwards in the 1870s. On its odd-numbered side stands a row of houses numbered 97 to 133. It begins at numbers 97 and 101, which the municipal heritage map counts as part of the building of the café A Brasileira, put up in 1878, and ends at number 133, the house of the Hotel Girassol. In 1943 and again in 1948 the city prepared projects to give the whole row a single, unified front. The house itself is not on the municipal heritage map and is not a classified monument.
Key facts
- Where: Rua de Sá da Bandeira 133, 4000-433 Porto (Santo Ildefonso)
- Construction: not known; the house was standing by 1943, when it was included in a remodelling study for numbers 97 to 133
- 1943: study by the architect Homero Ferreira Dias for remodelling numbers 97 to 133 of the Rua de Sá da Bandeira and 112 and 154 of the Rua do Bonjardim; approved by the city but not carried out
- 1948: project by Fernando Távora for remodelling the main fronts of numbers 97, 101, 105–107, 111, 113–115, 121, 125 and 129–133, “to give unity to the group of buildings”; whether it was carried out is not recorded
- Protection: none. Not a classified monument; not on the Porto municipal heritage map (Carta de Património, PDM 2021)
- Current use: Hotel Girassol
- Coordinates: 41.147248, -8.608846 · open in Google Maps
History
The Rua de Sá da Bandeira was begun in 1836 on land of the former convent of the Congregados, abandoned by its fathers when the liberal army of Dom Pedro entered Porto during the civil war. The first houses went up from 1843. Around 1875 the city decided to clear the narrow lanes to the north and prolong the street to the Rua Formosa, and by 1880 the new stretch was open to traffic. The street is named after Bernardo de Sá Nogueira, Marquis of Sá da Bandeira, a leading figure of the siege of Porto.
The row at numbers 97 to 133 begins with the building of A Brasileira, which according to the municipal heritage map is a group of buildings put up in 1878 by Manuel Moreira Dias, where Adriano Teles opened his coffee shop in 1903. The municipal archive shows that by the 1940s the city was treating the whole row as a single front. On 5 February 1943 the architect Homero Ferreira Dias produced a study for remodelling the buildings at numbers 97 to 133 of the Rua de Sá da Bandeira and numbers 112 and 154 of the Rua do Bonjardim; the city approved it, but it was not carried out.
In 1948 the task passed to Fernando Távora, then an architect in the city’s technical office, where he worked from 1948 to 1954. The archive holds his project, dated May to July 1948, for remodelling the main fronts of numbers 97 to 133, with the stated aim of giving unity to the group. A study of the architect’s early work by Eduardo Fernandes of the University of Minho mentions this “study of elevations for a block of the Rua de Sá da Bandeira” among the municipal works of Távora that have never been published and are not documented in his own archive. We have not found whether the project was built, nor when the house at number 133 became a hotel.
What you see
We have not found a free photograph of the house that we could publish, and no heritage inventory describes it, so we cannot describe its front here. What the archive records is the intention of the two projects of the 1940s: to replace the separate fronts of eight buildings with a single, coherent elevation along this side of the street. Whether the front of number 133 today is the one Távora drew, an earlier one, or a later one, is one of the questions this page leaves open.
Practical information
- The building is a small hotel, the Hotel Girassol; the interiors are for guests.
- The row can be seen from the Rua de Sá da Bandeira; the opposite pavement gives the best view of its fronts.
- The house has no heritage protection; what is described here is its documented history.
Getting there
The Rua de Sá da Bandeira runs north from the Rua 31 de Janeiro towards the Bolhão market, east of the Avenida dos Aliados. Number 133 is a short walk from the Praça de D. João I; São Bento station is about 230 metres to the south, and the Bolhão and Aliados metro stations are a short walk away.
Nearby
- The building of the café A Brasileira of 1878, at the start of the same row, and the Teatro Sá da Bandeira on the other side of the street, a classified monument whose front dates from 1875–1880.
- The Rivoli Teatro Municipal of 1936 and the Edifício Rialto of 1942 on the Praça de D. João I, a short walk to the north.
- Café Majestic, about 200 metres to the east.
- São Bento station, about 230 metres to the south.
Do you know more?
On this page we have published what the Porto municipal archive records about the row of houses at numbers 97 to 133 of the Rua de Sá da Bandeira: the remodelling study of 1943 and Fernando Távora’s project of 1948. We have no photograph of the house we are free to publish, and we could not find when number 133 was built, who built it, whether Távora’s project was carried out, or when the house became a hotel. If you know something — a name, a date, the people who lived or kept shop here, an old photograph, a document, a book that mentions it — or if you can send us a photograph of the house, write to Sofia, who looks after these pages.
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Please start your message with the title of this page, so it reaches the right file. Every contribution is checked against independent sources before it goes on the page, and we always say where a piece of information came from.
Sources
- Arquivo Municipal do Porto, “Projeto para remodelação da fachada principal dos prédios n.ºs 97 a 133 da Rua de Sá da Bandeira” (May 1948): project by Fernando Távora for the fronts of numbers 97, 101, 105–107, 111, 113–115, 121, 125 and 129–133, “destinado a dar unidade ao grupo de edifícios”; and the related elevation of May–July 1948.
- Arquivo Municipal do Porto, “Estudo para a remodelação dos prédios nº 97 a 133 da Rua de Sá da Bandeira e nº 112 e 154 da Rua do Bonjardim” (5 February 1943): study by the architect Homero Ferreira Dias, approved by the city but not carried out.
- Eduardo Fernandes, “A obra inicial de Fernando Távora: para uma releitura”, 4th International Congress on the History of Luso-Brazilian Construction (University of Minho repository): Távora as municipal architect from 1948 to 1954 and his unpublished “estudo de alçados para um quarteirão da rua de Sá da Bandeira”.
- Câmara Municipal do Porto, Carta de Património I, PDM 2021 (open data): no entry for number 133; “Edifício da Brasileira”, Rua de Sá da Bandeira 69–101, built in 1878 by Manuel Moreira Dias; the Teatro de Sá da Bandeira, the Rivoli (1936) and the Edifício Rialto (1942).
- Wikipedia (pt), Rua de Sá da Bandeira: opening from 1836 on land of the Congregados, the first houses from 1843, the extension to the Rua Formosa decided around 1875 and open by 1880, the origin of the name.
- Hotel Girassol, official website: the hotel at Rua de Sá da Bandeira, in the historic centre; no history of the building is given.
- OpenStreetMap / Nominatim: position, returned as Hotel Girassol, 133, Rua de Sá da Bandeira, Porto.
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