Jardins do Palácio de Cristal

This guide to the Jardins do Palácio de Cristal in Porto opens in September 1861, when King Dom Pedro V laid the foundation stone for a soaring glass-and-iron hall modeled on London's Crystal Palace, and died within two months without ever seeing it finished. It follows the palace's 1865 opening to over three thousand exhibitors from as far as Japan and Brazil, one of the world's largest pipe organs thundering inside, and Porto-born cellist Guilhermina Suggia said to have played beneath its glass roof. Listen for the peacocks as you walk the camellia paths above the Douro.