TRAVEL,
ACCOMMODATION AND
GENERAL
INFORMATION
hosted by
Faculty of Engineering – Porto University
TRAVEL,
ACCOMMODATION AND
GENERAL
INFORMATION
hosted by
Faculty of Engineering – Porto University
|
VENUE OF MEETING |
The MEETING will take place at
the Faculty of Engineering from Porto University (FEUP):
Faculty of Engineering, Porto University
Rua Dr.
Roberto Frias, s/n
4200-465 Porto,
Portugal
|
TRAVELLING TO PORTO |
By Plane: Sá
Carneiro Airport, (IATA: OPO), Pedras Rubras, Maia (+351) 229 432 400. Also known as Aeroporto do Porto or Aeroporto
de Pedras Rubras this
is the third busiest airport in the country and is located at approximately 15
km from the city centre. Just outside of the airport
is there is a bus stop for the AeroBus which
takes you to Praça da Liberdade
(city center) or will drop you off at the Pousada
da Juventude (youth hotel, but with no age limit).
A similar taxi trip will cost 20 Euro. The Metro line connects the Airport to
the city centre, offering a fast and relaxed ride into the
heart of the city.
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PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION |
By metro
The Porto Metro has 5 lines
that run across the center of Porto and to some suburban areas. The Metro is
probably the most efficient way to get around Porto.
Tickets must be purchased in
advance.
The ticket is printed in a
card called Andante, and you can purchase as many rides (or travels) as you
want for the zone you are staying in (Porto and surrounding is Z2, Matosinhos
Z3 and Airport Z4). One travel will take you anywhere in your zone, and you can
travel as many times as you want during one hour. If you plan on using it
again, Do not throw away the card! The
card can be re-charged.
You can also buy daily passes.
An important note: your Andante must be
validated in one yellow machine before you enter the metro or a bus.
The FEUP metro station is located
on the yellow line
D Line: Hospital São João – D.João II
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From airport to FEUP Departure Station: Aeroporto
|
From Downtown to FEUP Departure Station: S. Bento / Aliados
/ Trindade |
For more information:
http://www.metrodoporto.pt/
By bus
STCP has many
lines and buses, which are modern and comfortable. If you do not have the Andante
(see Metro above) you can purchase tickets once you board a bus.
For more information:
http://www.stcp.pt/
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ABOUT PORTO |
The conquest of Portucale in 868 by Vímara
Peres, a warrior of king Afonso III from Leon, is duly considered as a major
event in the ancient history of Porto. Ever since the second half of the 6th
century, since the days of the Suevians, the head
office of the Portugalense Diocese was located
in Portucale. However, as of 868 its
importance increased: it became the centre of the
movement of re-conquest, which, because of this, became the Portugalensis
province in the middle of the 10th century. The inhabitants of this area became
known as the Portugalenses. It was among
them that the first vague national feelings began to emerge.
In 1120, the D.
Teresa, the widow of the Count D. Henrique, donated the Bishop D. Hugo and his
successors the little borough of Porto. In 1123 the Bishop granted the latter a
code of laws and later, D. Afonso Henriques confirmed
and enlarged the limits of the land. In 1147 some of the Nordic Crusaders who
took part of the Second Crusade entered the Douro river.
The Bishop of Porto, D. Pedro Pitões, eloquently
lectured them at the Crasto de Portucale,
on top of the hill, in front of the Sé (Cathedral).
The purpose of this lecture was to encourage them to join D. Afonso Henriques in the conquest of Lisbon. Afterwards, the Portugalense Bishop accompanied the armada and took
part in the military adventure.
Porto began to
develop rapidly when the Princess of the Tagus fell into the hands of the
Christians. The population began to grow and so did the city’s economic
importance. The bourgeois got involved in quarrels and clashes with its Bishops, to whom
the borough owed so much, but yet from whose temporal subordination the
rebellious ones wanted to free themselves. The King was often the peacemaker
and it was D. João I, who, after two centuries, ended these quarrels, allowing
himself the purchase of the right to temporal jurisdiction of the borough from
the Bishops.
During the crisis of
1383-1385, Porto served the Master of Avis, who presented himself as the
Portugal Governor and Defender against the people of Castile, in such a way
that the monarch granted it the title of MUI NOBRE E SEMPRE LEAL CIDADE (very
noble and always loyal city). The time of the Cycle of Conquests and the
Ultramarine Discoveries followed. In the same manner that the north of the
country had been the cradle of the warriors who conquered the south from the Moors,
it was also from the north, place of birth of the Porto Infante
D. Henrique, and many sailors, that a decisive impulse towards great maritime
navigations emerged. However, there was more to Porto than trade and navigation.
After having been under the rule
of the king Philip of Spain, Portugal recovers its independence in 1640. At
this point, Porto enthusiastically takes on a role of distinction during the
Restoration. Porto suffers severely from the invasion of Soult in 1809, and its
tragic consequences.
Nevertheless, not everything is
related to war in the history of Porto. On the second half of the 18th century,
the city, which had become extraordinarily rich, grew, became modernized thanks
to the Almadas; and in the 19th century, Porto
presented the Nation with poets like Garrett and sculptors as great as Soares
dos Reis.
Obviously, at the groundwork
of all collective actions of a people is the people itself. Guilherme Camarinha bore that in mind in a tapestry displayed at the Câmara Municipal do Porto (Porto City Council), as he
placed at the base of his amazing work the farmers, the craftsmen, the
carpenters, the ships carpenters and the butchers working on the preparation of
the armada, which left from the Ribeira do Douro in
1415 to Ceuta, under the command of the Infante D.
Henrique. The people of Porto contributed with
everything they had for the equipment and supply of those ships. They
generously and patriotically gave in all the meat from their cattle, leaving
for themselves nothing but the entrails of those animals, which granted them a
designation that is their utmost legitimate pride title: that of the tripeiros (which literally means tripe eaters).
Overlooking the
Douro River, Porto is one of the most ancient European cities. It developed
from the northern bank of this river during the Middle
Ages. One of the most significant aspects of Porto and its historical centre is its landscape, combining harmony with the urban
structure and presenting a frame of rare beauty. The city was classified as
World Heritage by UNESCO in 1996.
The Port Wine is a
sweet fortified wine, exclusively produced in the Douro designated region,
named after the city of Porto, where it is aged and bottled. Its unmistakable
bouquet, body and flavor are due to the high quality of the grapes, as well as
to the region's soil and climatic conditions. Vinho
do Porto is basically a geographic name of origin. There are, in fact,
several types of Port Wine - some are aged in wooden casks and others in
bottles.
See the web site
at http://www.portoturismo.pt/ for more information on the history
of Porto.
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the University of Porto |
The
University of Porto is approaching its one hundredth birthday, having been
formally founded on 22nd March 1911, immediately after the Portuguese Republic
was established. The roots of the institution, however, date back to 1762, when
the Nautical Class was created by D. José I. This school, along with subsequent
schools which were created, (Sketching and Drawing Class, created in 1779;
Royal Academy of Maritime and Trade Affairs, in 1803; Polytechnic Academy, in
1837) were responsible for training students in Porto over the course of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, providing a response to the need for
qualified staff in the fields of naval affairs, trade, industry and the arts.
In 1825, the first medical
school was founded in Porto. Called the Royal School of Surgery, it was
transformed in 1836 into the Medical-Surgical School.
In parallel, the Sketching and
Drawing Class gave rise to other schools – the Porto Academy of Fine Arts
(1836), later the Porto School of Fine Arts (1881), and finally the Porto
Higher Institute of Fine Arts (1950). The latter transformed over the last quarter
of the twentieth century, into the current faculties of architecture and fine
arts at the University of Porto.
The University of Porto was
initially structured around two faculties (Science and Medicine). Over the
course of the twentieth century a diversification of knowledge occurred and
schools gained autonomy. Even during the 1st Republic, in 1915, the Technical
Faculty was founded (renamed the Faculty of Engineering in 1926), along with
the Faculty of Arts in 1919 and the Faculty of Pharmacy in 1925.
During the authoritarian
regime, created after the military movement on 28th May 1926, growth at the
University of Porto was conditioned: the Faculty of Arts was terminated in
1928, and only restored in 1961; only the Faculty of Economics was truly created
from scratch during this period, in 1953. After the revolution in April 1974,
and until the end of the century, the University of Porto finally began to
expand. The six existing faculties at the time were expanded by eight more: the
Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences (1975), the Faculty of Sport
(1975), the Faculty of Psychology and Education Science (1977), the Faculty of
Architecture (1979), the Faculty of Dental Medicine (1989), the Faculty of
Nutritional and Food Science (1992), the Faculty of Fine Arts (1992) and the Faculty
of Law (1994). Today, the University of Porto has fourteen faculties and one
post-graduate school, the Porto Management School, created in 1988 and whose
name changed to University of Porto Business School in 2008.
|
the FACULTY OF ENGINEERING |
With origins that go back to the
18th century, the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto adopted
this designation in 1926 and occupied the former facilities at Rua dos Bragas after 1937.
Nowadays, FEUP has new facilities at the Pole II of the University of Porto.
The teaching of Engineering in
Portugal had its origins in the early Nautical School (Aula Náutica),
by decree of 30th July 1765. The city of Porto was an important shipping and
trade centre, and the mercantile spirit of its
inhabitants was early developed. However, those were very troubled days: trade
was being adversely affected by pirates who, hiding along the shores of North
Africa, attacked the ships loaded with goods.
To solve this problem, the Business
Men of the Porto Market (Homens de Negócio da Praça do Porto) asked
the king for permission to build, at their own expense, two frigates of 24 and
30 guns to protect the fleets sailing from the city to the ports in America.
The beginning of ship building brought the need to find men capable of
commanding and maneuvering these vessels, which resulted in the founding of the
Nautical School in Porto.
Replacing the Naval Academy, by
decree of 13th January 1837, the Polytechnical
Academy was created in Porto, charged with the training of engineers, naval
officers, pilots, traders, farmers, factory managers and artists.
By decree of 21st July 1885, the courses
of Mining, Civil and Industrial Engineering were organized, as well as the
higher course of Commerce, all of them with the duration of six years, four of
preliminary studies and two of specialization.
The Academy also prepared students
for the Army, Naval, Medical and Pharmacy Schools. After the establishment of
the Republic, their first government carried out a reform of higher education,
reforming the University of Coimbra and creating two new Universities, with
pedagogic and administrative autonomy, in Lisbon and Porto.
This reform changed the Polytechnical Academy, the first Engineering School in the
country, into the Faculty of Sciences, which was incorporated in the
Engineering School. This situation led to the protest of the teachers of Porto
voiced by the city representatives, which led to the publication of the law nº
410 of 1915, turning the Engineering School into an autonomous Technical
Faculty. This same law determined the division of the courses into Mining,
Civil, Mechanical, Electrical and Chemical-Industrial Engineering.
The organization of these courses
was reviewed by legislation published on 30th November 1918 and on 29th January
1921. The decree nº 18739 of 26th July 1930 settled the organization of the
courses of what was then named the Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do
Porto.
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of
the Polytechnical Academy, the building at Rua dos Bragas was inaugurated in
1937.
Meanwhile, the decree nº40378 of
14th November 1955 established the organization and the curricula of the
courses of Engineering taught in Portuguese Universities (Mining, Civil,
Mechanical, Electro-technical and Chemical-Industrial Engineering). The Reform
of Education of 1970 introduced important changes in the organization of the
courses of Engineering which were reduced to five years, and schools began to
have autonomy to design their own curricula.
In 1974 the Faculdade de Engenharia
took upon the teaching of the five years of its undergraduate courses, the
first two years no longer being the task of the Faculty of Science.
Meanwhile, in 1970, the
undergraduate degree in Metallurgical Engineering was created, later called
Metallurgical and Materials Engineering. More recently, the undergraduate
degrees in Management and Industrial Engineering (1990) and in Computer
Engineering (1994) were set up. Nowadays, FEUP has eight undergraduate degrees
to offer.
In 1988, the publication of the law
on University Autonomy allowed the Faculty of Engineering to vote its first
statute where its administrative, financial and pedagogic autonomy was sanctioned.
Postgraduate education is also one
of the areas where FEUP has invested substantially since the creation of the
first Master's Course in 1981. From this date on, several similar courses have
been created, now numbering ten MSc degrees, covering various fields of
Engineering. Furthermore, FEUP offers PhD degrees in all the scientific areas
corresponding to the departments and also in the inter-disciplinary areas of
Engineering and Engineering Sciences.
The former facilities of FEUP were
scanty given the number of students and staff (teachers and other staff)
working there. It had a net area of about 30.000 m2.
Nowadays, FEUP has new facilities at
the pole II of the University of Porto. With almost three times the previous
area, with incomparably superior conditions and quality, it allows a confident
look towards the future.
|
ACCOMODATION |
To accommodate the
participants attending the Lecture Series, our Portuguese hosts recommend the
hotels listed below.
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HOTEL IBIS PORTO SÃO
JOÃO *** Rua Dr. Placido Costa,
Bonfim, 4200 Porto, Portugal Telf. 351 225 513
100 Website: www.ibishotel.com/pt/hotel-3227-ibis-porto-sao-joao/index.shtml Email: h3227-am@accor.com HOTEL AXIS **** (map) Rua Maria Feliciana - São Mamede de Infesta, Matosinhos, 4465-283 Porto Telf.
351 22 905 2000 Website: www.axishoteisegolfe.com/porto
Email: reservas@axisporto.com |
HOTEL EUROSTARS DAS
ARTES ***** (map) Rua do Rosário 160, 4050
Porto, Portugal Telf. 351 222 071 250 Website: www.eurostarshotels.com/EN/hotels-oporto.html Email: fom@eurostarsdasartes.com Vila
Galé Porto **** (map) Av. Fernão Magalhães, nº
7, 4300-190 PORTO, Portugal Telf. 351 225 191
800 Website: www.vilagale.pt Email: porto.grupos@vilagale.pt |
|
HOTEL DOM HENRIQUE ****(map) Rua de Guedes de Azevedo
179, 4000 Porto, Portugal Telf. 351 223 401
616 Website: www.hoteldomhenrique.pt Email: comercial@hoteldomhenrique.pt |
GRANDE HOTEL DO PORTO **** (map) Rua de Santa Catarina
197, 4000 Porto, Portugal Telf. 351 222 076
690 Website: www.grandehotelporto.com Email: reservas@grandehotelporto.com |
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HOTEL INTERNACIONAL
PORTO *** (map) Rua do Almada 131, 4050
Porto, Portugal Telf. 351 222 005
032 Website: www.hi-porto.com Email: info@hi-porto.com |
Tryp
Porto Centro Hotel ***
(map) Rua da Alegria 685,
4000-046 Porto, Portugal Telf. 351 225 194 800 Website: www.trypportocentro.com Email: tryp.porto.centro@solmeliaportugal.com |
|
HOTEL STAR INN PORTO *** (map) Rua da Senhora do Porto
930, 4250 Porto, Portugal Telf. 351 228 347
000 Website: www.hotelstarinn.com Email: dg.porto@hotelstarinn.com |
HOTEL INFANTE DE
SAGRES ***** (map) Praça Dona Filipa de
Lencastre 62, 4050 Porto, Portugal Telf. 351 223 398
500 Website: www.hotelinfantesagres.pt Email: bookings@hotelinfantesagres.pt |
|
Quality
Inn Porto *** (map) Praca da Batalha, 127 -
130, 4000-102 Porto, Portugal Telf. 351 223 392
300 Website: www.qualityinn.com/hotel-porto-portugal-PT025 Email: quality.batalha@grupo-continental.com |
HOTEL MERCURE PORTO
BATALHA **** (map) Praça da Batalha 28,
Porto, Portugal Telf. 351 222 043 300 Website: www.mercure.com/gb/hotel-1975-mercure-porto-centro/index.shtml Email: h1975@accor.com |
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|
|
The closest hotels to FEUP are IBIS São
João (approx. 5 - 10 min. walking) and AXIS
HOTEL (approx. 10-15
min. walking).
AXIS HOTEL to FEUP
The other hotels are located
in downtown. Google map (link)
|
MEALS AND
REFRESHMENTS |
Coffee, tea, and
light refreshments will be served in the registration area during the
Specialist Meeting. Lunch has to be organized by oneself. A list of restaurants
which offer lunch at reasonable prices and are located close-by FEUP can be
found below.
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MONEY EXCHANGE |
Portugal is one of
the countries with the highest density of ATMs, so it’s easy to find them
throughout the city. Most large restaurants and shops accept international
credit cards, but please check for the credit card stickers as you enter the
door to verify before entering. American Express, MasterCard and Visa credit
cards are the most widely used.
Currency exchange
is possible at the airport and all banks. You can find daily exchange rate
information for all currencies at: http://www.x-rates.com or http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=exchange+rates
The currency in
Portugal is the EURO.
All restaurants
and shops accept major international credit cards. Visa, Master Card, and Amex
are the most useful credit cards. However, it is advisable to check for the
credit card stickers as you enter the door to verify before you go in or ask
before making a purchase.
|
WEATHER AND TIME
ZONE |
The weather
forecast can be found at the following web sites: http://www.worldweather.com
or http://www.meteo.pt
The Summer Western
European time is GMT, the same as London.
|
TIPPING |
Tipping in
restaurants, bars and taxis is not mandatory, but is usually about 5-10% at
one’s own discretion.
|
TELEPHONE |
The international
dialing code for Portugal is 351.
Individual
telephone numbers are comprised of nine digits. Phone cards must be used for
public phones, and cards can be purchased at post offices, or at the airport.
Most post offices are open from 09.00 to 18.00 on weekdays. These phone cards
for public telephones are much cheaper than using the room phones in the hotels.
The international access code when dialing from Portugal is 00 before the
country code.
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MISCELLANEOUS |
See the web site http://www.portoturismo.pt, http://www.portotours.com
and http://viajar.clix.pt/geo.php?d=6 for
more information on the gastronomy, shopping, nightlife or accommodation in
Porto.
|
ADDITIONAL
INFORMATION |
For additional
information please contact:
|
João Borges de Sousa Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty of Engineering - Porto University Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, s/n 4200-465 Porto,
Portugal Tel. (+351) 22 508
1690 / 1539 Fax. (+351) 22 508 1443 Email: jtasso@fe.up.pt |
|
|
LOCAL AREA MAP |
Map of downtown Porto. Google
map (link)
