Muralhas Fernandinas do Porto

Porto, Portugal, Portugal

---

The Muralhas Fernandinas do Porto, or Fernandine Walls, enclose the historic center of Porto, Portugal, built to protect the expanding city amid growing maritime trade and external threats in the 14th century.

Construction began in 1336 under King Afonso IV on the foundations of earlier Roman and 12th-century walls around the cathedral area, but continued until 1376 under King Fernando I—hence its name—with a perimeter of about 3 kilometers featuring 14 gates, 34 towers, and battlements.

Responding to merchants' demands for security beyond the old walls, these fortifications included key sections like the Guindais stretch and gates such as Postigo do Carvão (marked 1348) and later additions like Postigo dos Carros in 1409, adapting over centuries until largely dismantled in the 19th for urban growth, with surviving fragments now visible near the cathedral and Ribeira.