History of Territorial Planning
It is important to study the history of territorial planning in our area of intervention and adjacent areas to find out how the urban fabric grew, with what intentions and hesitations it emerged and what impact it had and still has on the residents' lifestyle. We can also ask ourselves about the impact that the residents' lifestyle has on the territory itself: if they work outside the area, then this is a preferable area to reside; if they are used to traveling on foot, by car or by bicycle; if you like a peaceful environment to walk around and socialize with your neighbors or if you prefer the city bustle; etc. People, who are also actors of the territory, build the space where they live. Changes can be made on the initiative of parish councils, town halls and municipal entities or on the initiative of residents, as it is very common to see vegetable gardens cultivated along the Torto river. It is important not to forget the identity of the place, which was built over centuries.
In this sense, how has the territory been organized over time?
THE BEGINNING…
Rich in water resources, with an extremely fertile soil and a privileged geographical position, the territory of the current municipality of Porto presents traces of human occupation from Prehistory - Mesolithic and Chalcolithic - to the Bronze Age and Iron Age, in areas away from the city center, such as Campanhã, Aldoar and Nevogilde. Certain studies show that the area of Campanhã was still inhabited during the period of the great megalithic monuments (3rd and 2nd millennia BC). But some traces found near the Esteiro de Campanhã and attributed to the Paleolithic, indicate that the occupation of the parish may have been earlier. Already in the Iron Age, there was the castro de Noeda, close to the confluence of the Tinto and Torto rivers.
The first traces of the protohistoric castro that gave rise to the city of Porto, dating back to the 4th-3rd centuries BC, can be found on Morro da Sé or Penaventosa, with characteristics similar to other castros in the northwest of the peninsula. Nearby, other finds attest to an occupation that dates back to the first centuries of the 1st millennium BC This castro had commercial links with the Roman world, showing a significant level of Romanization in the 1st century AD, probably related to the reorganization implemented by Augustus. Incidentally, it is known that the first major road axis, called Via XVI, which connected Lisbon to Braga, passing through Porto, was a Roman road and was built in the 1st century BC and modified in the 1st century. 2nd AD In the late Roman period, the “civitas” expanded to the Cividade hill and along the Penaventosa slope and reached the Ribeira area. The growing port dynamics will have reinforced Cale's role as a catalyst for the regional economy, with the first references to Portucale appearing. The toponym "Campanhã", of Latin origin, also reflects the Roman influence in this area. And the current territory of Gondomar was also occupied by castros, which were later appropriated by the Romans. However, the first reference to Gondomar, at the time a Couto, dates back to 610, during the Visigothic occupation.
Porto and Gondomar in the 4th century
synthesis plant authored by the group
MIDDLE AGES…
The oldest known reference related to Campanhã appears in a document dated 994, which reads, for the first time, the expression "ribulum campaniana", Rio de Campanhã (the current Torto river)._cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b- 136bad5cf58d_
Over time, Porto suffered several attacks, ending up destroyed in several of them, such as the attack, in 997, by Almansor. However, in 1062, the territory of present-day Rio Tinto began to develop with the foundation of the former convent of Agostinhas, now Quinta das Freiras, at the time belonging to the Maia Court. Also Campanhã, in the 11th century, was referred to as being the seat of a relatively important "villa", the "villa campaniana", a rural property of Roman tradition, which dates back to the 4th century. This "Campanian villa", domain of an old noble family, included a large part of the current parishes of Campanhã, Rio Tinto and Valbom, and also housed the "Monastery of Santa Maria de Campanhã", the oldest local religious institution._cc781905-5cde -3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_
In the following century, the Couto de Rio Tinto already included the villages of Vila Cova, Ranha, Rebordãos, Quintã, Triana, Portela, Areosa, Pinheiro, Gesta, Brasoleiro, Forno, Santeganos, Carreiros, Medancelhe, Casal, Lourinha, Sevilhães, Perlinhas , Blacksmithing, Vendas Velhas, Vendas Novas, Cavada nova, São Sebatão, Vale de Flores, Soutelo, Mendalho, Amial and Mosteiro. In the same century, between 1113 and 1114, the diocese of Porto, in a vast territory that already covered parts of Santo Ildefonso, Paranhos, Bonfim and Campanhã, was restored. The security that the north obtained with the Christian reconquest towards the Tagus allowed the city, limited by its primitive walls, to expand beyond them and become a commercial and maritime center.
The year 1120 marked, however, the beginning of a new historical cycle that proved to be decisive, not only for the parish of Campanhã, but for the entire village of Porto. In that year, D. Teresa, mother of D. Afonso Henriques, donated the territory of Porto to Bishop D. Hugo, passing the town to be administered directlydirectly by the Portucalense Cathedral. Uan important part of freguesia was included in the donation, forming from there the eastern limit of the couto, later called "termo Velho" of the city. Campanhã became thus dividedinto two distinct parts: the western area, closer to the center of the village and situated within the limits of the couto, and the eastern part, belonging to the "lord king" and therefore forming a reguengo. This institutional division defined in 1120 and confirmed by the inquiries of D. Afonso III, in 1258, did not know significant changes until the 19th century. However, the Igreja de Campanhã ensured the connection, not only symbolic, but also social and cultural between the two parties. In this century, Porto was an episcopal city that developed around a cathedral that had begun to be built on top of the Pena Ventosa hill, having valences of military defense and protection against the enemy in addition to the reasons for worship. This agglomeration was protected by walls ordered to be erected, in the same century, by Bishop D. Hugo on the foundations of previous walls of Swabian origin.
Fânzeres was also beginning to take shape at this time, belonging in 1226 to the lands of Maia.
From the 14th century onwards, the need for a new Porto wall was evident to protect homes and businesses against the insecurities that arrived by land and sea. By royal decision, this great undertaking began, to which the lands around Porto contributed: Maia, Bouças, Gondomar, Melres, Refojos do Ave, Aguiar de Sousa, Paiva and Feira. The wall, on the initiative of King Afonso IV, was only completed during the reign of King Fernando I, hence the designation “Fernandine wall”.
With its administrative status perfectly defined, Campanhã witnessed in the final centuries of the Middle Ages a very significant expansion of its cultivated area, accompanied by a very expressive growth of the population. Benefiting from its immense natural resources, the parish slowly became an important agricultural reserve in the village. This economic specialization developed throughout the Modern Age, continuing practically unchanged until the beginning of our century. Trade in agricultural goods with the more urbanized areas of the city intensified from the 15th and 16th centuries onwards, multiplying the income of landowners and giving rise to numerous legal conflicts between them, regarding the limits and rights associated with each domain. .
Walls of Porto according to Dr. Carlos Passos on the 1839 City Plan
Porto and Gondomar in the 15th century
synthesis plant authored by the group
MODERN AGE…
Of the monastery that characterized and gave importance to the Couto de Rio Tinto, extinct in 1535, nothing remains today. It was at the same time that Rio Tinto became part of the extinct municipality of Aguiar de Sousa.
The 16th century was a turning point in Porto's urban expansion, despite maintaining a certain rural nature, with its backyards and fields. The commercial development and shipbuilding provided a demographic growth that did not support the limit imposed by the fernandine wall, so there was an extramural expansion to an even more rural area. In 1687, Campanhã counted 1 381 inhabitants, agriculture being the most important activity in the parish.
However, throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, there were several changes in the delimitation of some localities, such as Melres, Rio Tinto, Lomba and São Pedro da Cova, which varied the form of the municipality of Gondomar, to which the parishes also once belonged. de Avintes (today belonging to Vila Nova de Gaia) and Campanhã (belonging to Porto).
During the 18th century, farms and summer manors of the great bourgeois and noble families of the city of Porto appeared. The farms of Freixo, Bonjóia, Revolta, Furamontes and Vila Meã are some examples of the luxury and architectural refinement that characterized these manor houses. Their presence imprinted a very specific character to the landscape and identity of the parish, especially to the Campanhã valley. Campanhã had, at the time, 2169 inhabitants and the Couto de Rio Tinto, a few years later, 2 675 inhabitants. also dDuring this century, with the intervention of João de Almada e Melo, the medieval walls of Porto were being demolished, allowing the expansion of the city. During this period, efforts were made to solve the main problems in terms of the urban fabric, influenced by the appearance of new unplanned neighbourhoods, the need to pave streets, aqueducts and fountains in ruins and the need to build and rehabilitate squares and new streets. . The city began to be planned and grew in an organized way, as opposed to the urban fabric that grew organically during the medieval period. During that century, the main urban actions and investments carried out in Porto focused on the western and central areas of the city.
City of Porto by WB Clarke, in 1833
The city of Porto evolved progressively, and in 1851, the first experience of public gas lighting appeared, spreading 4 years later to the whole city, including the parishes grouped to the municipality and the newly created ones, such as do Bonfim.
It was also at this time that the boundaries between the two municipalities began to be better defined: Porto and Gondomar. In 1867, the municipality of Rio Tinto was created, which included seven civil parishes: Águas Santas, Covelo, Gondomar, S. Pedro da Cova, Rio Tinto, Valbom and Valongo. However, in early 1868, the law that allowed the creation of this new municipality was annulled, restoring the municipality of Gondomar, which, in the same year, began to incorporate the parishes of S. Cosme, Valbom, Fânzeres, Jovim, Foz do Sousa e Medas.
City of Porto by Telles Ferreira, in 1882
The transport revolution, a sign of progress and modernization, boosted the industrial development of the territory in question, particularly in Campanhã. In 1872, the “American” was already circulating, a carriage pulled by animal traction on iron rails that, in 1874, became steam traction. In 1875, it was already possible to travel by train from Campanhã (Estação Sucursal de S. Roque da Lameira) to Braga, via the Minho Line, or to Penafiel, via the Douro Line. In 1877, the bridge of D. Maria Pia and the Campanhã Station (built in the Quinta do Pinheiro area) were inaugurated, ensuring the connection of the railway to the south. The expansion of the offer of means of transport and the construction of the station promoted the displacement of large amounts of labor from the interior of the country to Porto and, above all, to Campanhã and its valley. The great availability of labor favored, in turn, the establishment of new factories, especially in the vicinity of the station, in a continuous movement throughout the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century. On the other hand, the growing influx of people to Campanhã led to the redesign of the accommodation structures. Faced with their reduced purchasing power, the workers concentrated on "islands" and "patios", two types of buildings that became one of the most important marks of the physical and social landscape of the parish. Campanhã Station thus became the terminus of the Lisbon railway line (to date the connection ended in Vila Nova de Gaia in Devesas), boosting trade between Porto and the south of Portugal and the concentration of industrial activity in this location, largely based on facilitating the access of new factories to raw materials and on the speed and agility of the disposal of finished products.
Assembly of the Plan of Telles Ferreira, from 1892, in Plano Plano
Porto and Gondomar at the end of the 19th century
synthesis plant authored by the group
JIn 1889, construction began on the new fence around Porto, the Circunvalação, to function as a tax barrier. This barriera disappeared in 1943, remaining only a dividing symbol between Porto and the neighboring municipalities, from which the parishes of Nevogilde, Aldoar, Ramalde and Paranhos were removed.
The instability and the social and economic crisis felt in the 20th century allowed for the installation, on May 28, 1926, of a dictatorial regime, the Estado Novo. This regime was responsible for the implementation of several new urban plans, mainly in terms of housing. Planned in 1933 and generally built from 1934-36, the low-income housing neighborhoods are a symbol of this urban growth and are quite present in both municipalities, for example, in the low-income housing neighborhood of São Roque da Lameira, in Campanhã._cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_
Tram network in 1930
At the beginning of the 20th century, the parish of Campanhã still had a markedly rural appearance and layout, with the transformation of rural paths (with weak characteristics to support a lot of traffic) into main arteries of high flow, maintaining the inadequate profile to the needs and according to the topographic conditions, of which Rua do Freixo is an example. In a mixture of different neighbourhoods, Campanhã witnessed a new growth in the 50's and 60's. At that time, the city was tending to expand towards the east. The parish became one of the preferred areas for the construction of neighborhoods on the initiative of the city council and its population then recorded an extraordinary increase. At the same time, there was a decline in the role of industry as the main economic activity, progressively replaced by areas linked to services. Despite the population and urban growth that was felt at the beginning of the 20th century, generated by the arrival of people from inland areas of the country who moved to the city of Porto in search of work, the parish of Campanhã never became a stopover place. , nor as an urban hub and aggregator of central activities, not disconnecting from its rural matrix.
Photoplan of the city of Porto, in 1958
Accompanying the evolution that occurred in Portuguese cities as a whole, the process of deindustrialization had a visible impact on the eastern part of the city, which became more evident from the 80s of the last century when many units were transferred to municipalities on the periphery, motivated by by the difficulties of circulation in the urban fabric of heavy vehicles, by the inability to modernize and expand construction and by the greater environmental concern of the cities. The process of de-industrialization of Campanhã led to a significant decrease in employment in this location. The population, with low levels of qualification and increasingly aging, has not been able to find new job opportunities, in a particularly adverse economic and social context. This negative combination contributed to the weakening of the social fabric and to urban fragmentation, largely based on the exodus of the population to other locations, the degradation and obsolescence of the industrial fabric, the construction of heavy infrastructure and the particularly complex terrain of the territory.
Industrial Situation in the 1970s
In 1985, the form of the municipality of Gondomar was finally stabilized, with the creation of the Parish of Baguim do Monte. Fânzeres was elevated to the category of Town in a plenary meeting of the Assembly of the Republic on June 30, 1989.
In 2011, the sixth line of the Porto metro was inaugurated, connecting Senhora da Hora to Fânzeres. In 2019, the Rio Tinto Urban Park was inaugurated.
CONTEMPORARY AGE…
With the 19th century came the destruction caused by war. First with the Napoleonic invasions (1809), which left a trail of devastation throughout the municipality of Porto and surroundings, clearly evident in the sacking of the Church of Campanhã. And then with the civil war (1832-34) and the siege of the city of Porto. The tragic balance of losses included, according to reports at the time, trees felled, vineyards destroyed, fields burned down, houses and walls demolished, and irreparable damage to industrial equipment. But the 19th century, despite the difficulties of the first decades, also represents a period of growth and prosperity. The reconstruction of the city became a national priority, with a series of urban, social and political transformations occurring since then. In 1836, the administrative reform planned by Mouzinho da Silveira was implemented, in which several parishes in Maia became incorporated into neighboring municipalities, such as Rio Tinto, in relation to Gondomar. Campanhã also became part of the administrative perimeter of Porto. Campanhã had a very significant increase in population and a rapid expansion of its industrial structure. Thus, alongside traditional industries such as milling and weaving, which were experiencing strong development, new investments emerged and the branches of activity increasingly diversified. Factories and workshops appeared throughout the parish dedicated to carpentry, lime production, wax matches, toothpicks, filigree work, distilleries, soap making and evento tanneries.
Campanhã | Urban barriers (accessibility and transport infrastructure)
PRESENT…
Porto, the main economic, university and cultural center of the North Region, plays a vital role in structuring the urban system of the northwest peninsula and occupies a relevant position in different territorial scales.
Today, Campanhã continues to be divided between its past of rural tradition, which is still alive in the landscape and in many aspects of everyday life, and the increasingly visible traces of modernity. The parish is characterized by being an area with great functional and morphological diversity as a result of the numerous physical and social transformations that have occurred over time. The shape and urban structure found today in Campanhã are nothing more than a reflection of its historical path, resulting from a fusion of residential and industrial areas in articulation with the remains of old farms and agricultural land. It is a territory marked by the dynamics associated with Campanhã Station, by large industrial units that have been decommissioned, by degraded housing areas and by an urban fabric constrained by road infrastructure channels at a metropolitan or even national level. The Via de Cintura Interna (VCI), completed in the 1990s, the construction of the Freixo Bridge and the execution of the section connecting the access junction to the A3/A34, were notable works in the city of Porto, but which accentuated the already existing barrier effect created by the train line. The existing conflict between the new infrastructures and functions that the area has been hosting and the pre-existing urban fabric, today generates dysfunctions that condition and mischaracterize the territory. However, this territory does not only stand out for its urban and social problems, as these new infrastructures, combined with the existence of areas with high potential for requalification, also constitute important opportunities for the development of the parish and for the location of qualified activity centers. . It represents, due to its location, the existence of large unused cadastral units, the possibility of qualified articulation with the rest of the city and interconnection to the Douro River and the Oriental Park, the decision of the Municipality to build and consolidate here an important intermodal transport interface in the city and the metropolitan area and to set up a hub for creative, technological and cultural companies (formerly Matadouro), an opportunity to frame urban operations capable of fostering new economic, social and cultural dynamics.
Rio Tinto, one of the parishes connected to the railway network, presents the greatest urban growth, also due to its association with its insertion in the urban continuity of Porto.
Although Fânzeres is a parish benefiting from a metro station, it suffers from the distance, being, together with the parishes of São Pedro da Cova and Baguim do Monte, one of the least growing.
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