page_title: Casa da Câmara
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Casa da Câmara / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: Antiga Mui Nobre Sempre Leal e Invicta Cidade do Porto (Ancient, very noble, always loyal and invincible city of Porto). This is the city motto inscripted over a building near the cathedral.
context_page_description: The Casa da Câmara is a former-administrative building located in the civil parish of Cedofeita, Santo Ildefonso, Sé, Miragaia, São Nicolau e Vitória, in the municipality of Porto, in northern Portugal.
context_section_description: The house is located in an isolated location, with the historic centre and any area of elevated patrimonial value, along the wall of the Sé Cathedral of Porto. The vestiges of the old municipal building, with access to the Rua de São Sebastião, over the Romanesque wall, in a location that was once occupied by the Santo Mártir Gate (Saint Martyred Gate). Near this, on a lower level and with access to the Rua de São Sebastião, is the Chapel of Senhor dos Passos.
  The irregular plan consists of the vestiges of the old municipal house, with a rectangular, contemporary tower over its eastern edge. The volume is vertically dominant, covered by a terrace on its top. By the stereotomy of the stonework it is evident that the a framed balcony span had been constructed without taipa (common at the time) with the use of great stones.
  The old municipal house was a regular granite structure, with grated doors in the west and north, with a northern elevation accessible by ramp. The western portico is demarcated by its facade and remnants of two vanes, with battlements and projected frame with lateral rectangular grille window. In the interior, its placement created two platforms, with pavements of granite slabs. The openings, relative to the wooden floor support beams, are visible in the interior walls. On the eastern, western and southern walls are the exposed concrete walls of the tower. Inside the ruin lies the statue of O Porto, resting on a granite pedestal, facing the back of the tower, and exposed to the city.
  The tower's lateral facades is covered with masonry, simulating regular granite, with the upper third of the main and posterior facades in glass and ironworks. The main facada, facing the east, is marked on its base by a rectangular, slightly-recessed curtain with a central door. Above the wall is an inscription:
  ANTIGA MUI NOBRE SEMPRE LEAL E INVICTA CIDADE DO PORTO
  Old Very Nobl Always Loyal and Undefeated City of Porto
  The upper third, has an iron-and-glass structure of iron and glass, slightly retracted from the rest of the facade. The lateral facades face the north and south, respectively, and are identical, raised above the roof. On the north face is the coat-of-arms of the town of Porto, with vestiges of the silhares of the primitive wall (where it was integrated). The rear facade is an extension of the lateral facades, with a structure of glass and iron set back.
  The interior is structured into three floors with internal stairs.
caption: The inner wall of the Casa da Câmara and inscription of the ...Undefeated City of Porto
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