Porto put the Portu in Portugal. The name dates from Roman times, when Lusianian settlements straddled both sides of the Douros banks.
The area was briefly in the hands of the Moors but was reconquered by AD 1000 and reorganised as the country of Portucale, with Porto as its capital. In 1387 Dom Joao I married Philipa of Lancaster in Porto, and their famous son, Henry the Navigator was born here. While Henrys explorers groped around Africa for a sea route to India, British wine merchants - forbidden to trade with the French - set up shop, and their presence continues to this day, evidenced in port-wine labels such as Taylors and Grahams.
Today, the city remains the economic capital of northern Portugal and is surpassed only by much larger Lisbon in terms of ecom«nomic and social clout.
The area was briefly in the hands of the Moors but was reconquered by AD 1000 and reorganised as the country of Portucale, with Porto as its capital. In 1387 Dom Joao I married Philipa of Lancaster in Porto, and their famous son, Henry the Navigator was born here. While Henrys explorers groped around Africa for a sea route to India, British wine merchants - forbidden to trade with the French - set up shop, and their presence continues to this day, evidenced in port-wine labels such as Taylors and Grahams.
Today, the city remains the economic capital of northern Portugal and is surpassed only by much larger Lisbon in terms of ecom«nomic and social clout.
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