If you guessed Porto, well done. If you guessed a museum or a palace, you were close in spirit. São Bento is technically a train station, but calling it that undersells the beautiful art that adorns it’s walls.
What Is São Bento Station?
São Bento sits in the heart of Porto’s city centre and has been operating as the city’s main urban rail hub since the early 1900s. What makes it extraordinary is the entrance hall, which is covered floor to ceiling in over 20,000 hand-painted blue and white azulejo tiles. The panels depict scenes from Portuguese history, regional landscapes and daily life, and the scale of the work isn’t immediately obvious if you’re rushing to catch a train. But taking a moment to stand inside it and marvel at the art is definitely recommended.
It’s one of the most photographed interiors in Portugal and the images still don’t fully prepare you for being there in person.
How Do You Get There?
Porto is served by Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport, which has direct connections from several Australian cities via hub airports in the Middle East or Europe. From the airport, the metro runs directly into the city centre and São Bento station is a short walk from most of Porto’s central accommodation. You can also reach Porto by bus or train from Lisbon in under three hours. This is what I did. It’s naturally an obvious stop if you want to see more of Portugal.
São Bento itself is walkable from virtually every part of central Porto, and the surrounding neighbourhood puts you within easy reach of the Ribeira waterfront, the Livraria Lello bookshop and the main bridges across the Douro River.
What Else Is Worth Knowing About Porto?
São Bento gets the attention but Porto is definitely worth a couple of days. The Ribeira district along the riverfront is one of the most atmospheric neighbourhoods in Southern Europe, particularly in the early evening. A cable car ride or a walk across the Dom Luís I Bridge gives you views across both Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia on the opposite bank, where most of the port wine lodges sit.
The wine caves in Gaia offer tastings and tours that are worth a half day of your time, and the food scene across Porto has options at every price level, but no matter what you opt for, everything is delicious!
Porto is one of the most rewarding cities in Europe for the effort required to get there, and São Bento is a reminder that sometimes the most remarkable things are hiding in plain sight.
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