Ribeira

This guide to Porto's Ribeira quarter opens with a wartime disaster: on March 29, 1809, a crowd fleeing invading French troops surged onto a makeshift pontoon bridge across the Douro, and it gave way. You'll hear about the small plaque that still marks the spot today, alongside the neighborhood's long life as a working port-wine district, its stacked, colorful houses and arcaded square rebuilt after a 1491 fire. It's a look at how a lively riverfront quarter carries a tragedy inside its everyday geography.