Rua da Bainharia extends from Cruz do Souto, the square created by the confluence of this street with Souto and Pelames streets, in the upper part, to the junction of Rua de S. Crispim with Rua dos Mercadores, in the lower part.
This street is one of the cradles of the city of Porto, with a history dating back to the 12th century.
The history of Porto's rua Bainharia
An account from 1566 states that the Rua da Bainharia ran from Cruz do Souto to the S. Domingos bridge, which seems to indicate that the Rua de S. Crispim was not initially identified in toponymy. As this was a steeply sloping area, the street took a route over the Pena Ventosa hill, to reduce the effort required to overcome the difference in altitude.
In its layout, the street follows the Roman wall from the outside, roughly parallel to it, making it a genuine circumvallation route. In fact, in conjunction with Mercadores Street (downstream) and Escura Street (upstream), it constituted a vitally important traffic axis, distributing traffic from the riverside area to the old town (via Porta de Sant'Ana) or to the various medieval roads that ran from Porto to the more important urban centers of Entre-Douro-e-Minho and Trás-os-Montes.
In effect, all traffic arriving in Porto by sea or river, and intending to continue by land to Viana, Barcelos, Ponte de Lima and Braga, GuimarãesThe road from the town of Arrifana de Sousa (Penafiel) to Vila Real had to pass through Rua da Bainharia until it reached the start of the respective roads. Not surprisingly, this traffic route has its origins in Roman times.
The first known documentary reference to this street, however, dates back only to 1247, when it is mentioned in the Testament of Porto Bishop D. Pedro Salvadores, at a time when it was still referred to as Rua de Ferrays, Rua de Ferrariis or Rua de Fabris. Thanks to this document, we know that the Bishop of Porto had two houses on this street, one of which adjoined another house of the Confraternity of Saint Mary:
"... tres domos quas comporovj unam quae fuit de Pinione et aliam quae dividit cum domo de conffratriae Beatae Mariae quae sunt in Rua de Fferrays et aliam in Rua de Remolino...".
The street was originally called Das Ferrarias
We still find this street so named - Rua das Ferrarias - in 1296, in the will of Porto bishop D. Vicente Mendes, who also had houses on this street. However, according to Eugénio Andrea da Cunha e Freitas, as early as 1327, a document refers to it as Rua da Bainharia. Many experts believe that this is a letter of purchase for several houses on this street, which Domingos Dinis bought from Manuel Soares in 1327. The same Domingos Dinis bought other houses on the same street from Clara Dinis in 1341. The same designation continued to be used in Vereaçoens in the mid-15th century. On March 26, 1445, the Confrérie de Rocamador signed the term for a number of houses on the north side of the street, "which confronts the north with the farms of the Rio da Vila".
Either of these two designations can be explained by the etymology of the words themselves. In fact, it's possible that some of Porto's ironworks were located in this area of the city, which would explain the first designation - Rua de Ferrays or Rua de Ferrariis. It's also important to note that the presence of these factories in this area, compressed between the city wall and the Vila River, in an extramural zone, obeyed the restrictions that the Middle Ages imposed on this type of installation, not only for fear of fire, but also for the pollution they brought. A little above this street, we find the Aloques and Pelames area (in Calle Souto and Calle Pelames), another type of polluting urban industry that the Middle Ages established on the outskirts of urban spaces.
On the other hand, its successor, Rua da Bainharia, is explained by the presence in this part of town of bainheiros, or sword and dagger sheath makers. The organization of streets by trade is, as we know, very characteristic of the Middle Ages, and weavers were close to their raw materials, next to forges and furriers.
Street typology
Very early in the street's history, buildings had to fill both sides of the street, leaning against each other, leaving little open space between the various dwellings. Interestingly, medieval documentation does not record any unbuilt space in this thoroughfare. If, on one side, the houses and their respective hoes faced the "Muro Velho" (Old Wall), i.e. the Romanesque wall, on the other, they lined the banks of the river. It's interesting to note that almost all the houses had small vegetable gardens, either facing the river or pressed up against the Old Wall. The presence of these small vegetable gardens is fundamental to the medieval urban economy. What's more, the buildings adjoining the Roman wall, at the rear of the houses on this street, are mostly 17th- or 18th-century.
Again from known documentation, we know that the Rocamador inn, the most important welfare institution in medieval Porto, had a few houses here in 1407. In turn, the Albergaria de Sta. Clara also had houses here in 1451. Even more interesting is the diploma dated July 30, 1444, by which Senhorinha Anes, a widow, delivered a tower, a lagar (olive press) and half of a pardieiro (small farm) located in Rua da Bainharia, in payment of debts, a diploma that provides a good picture of the diversity of buildings this street possessed.
An analysis of the urban fabric suggests that this Tower, certainly a larger stone construction, was located in the lower third of the street, in the area between Ponte Nova and S. Crispim streets. Crispim. In fact, it's here that we find slightly larger urban plots, where this Tower could be located. It is possible that the remains of these medieval buildings are still covered by today's structures.
This street was also the site of a medieval hospital - Hospital de Tareija or Teresa Vaz de Altaro - which is poorly characterized in medieval documentation. Its exact location is not known, only that it was situated on the street. It housed poor women and may have been, as Luís de Pina suggests, a hospital-albergaria. This author even raised the possibility that it was the same institution as the Hospital Albergaria de Sta Clara, which was located in the upper part of Rua dos Mercadores. In 1558, the Porto Cathedral built a term of a few houses behind the street, as well as the Ponte Nova, in favor of Pantaleão Ferreira.
On April 11, 1788, documents revealed that some of the structures built in the Rua da Bainharia had been purchased by the Porto City Council. To be more precise, the Town Hall acquired a house located in the upper part of the Rua da Bainharia from Captain Manuel Barros Pereira.
The impoverished rua da Bainharia
The deterioration of the housing stock on Rua da Bainharia began to be clearly reflected in the early 18th and 19th centuries. On October 29, 1770, some of the houses on the corner of Rua da Bainharia and Rua da Ponte Nova were demolished. They belonged to Ana de Sta. Maria, a nun from Monchique, and were in ruins. From May 18, 1840 to June 17, 1857, almost all the buildings on the street were classified as ruins by the Porto City Council.
The Rua da Bainharia was already paved in the late Middle Ages, as Iria Gonçalves found funds for repair work among the town hall's expenses in the second half of the 15th century.
Relatively little is known about the Rua da Bainharia in modern times, a symptom of the way in which this area was already fully urbanized by the end of the Middle Ages and of the way in which, when major urban innovations were introduced into the city, the new areas to be urbanized were distanced from the historic city center. Indeed, the great innovations of the 15th century took place in the Ribeira area (with the opening of the Rua Nova, in the time of King João I, the first example of planned or created urbanism in the city of Porto), the innovations of the 16th century invested the area of the Hortas de S. Domingos (where the Rua de Stª Catarina das Flores was built), and the innovations of Baroque Porto also passed through. Not surprisingly, little is known about the area.
At the end of the 18th century (1795), Rua da Bainharia was home to several guitarists, including Sevilhano, or Sanhudos da Bainharia (1795). Armando Leça mentions that in 1861, there was an "António Joaquim Sanhudo, artist of the rabeca, cello, double bass and French guitar, gut and bow" whose workshop was located at Rua da Bainharia, no. 50, who received the copper medal at the 1861 Porto Industrial Exhibition.
