page_title: Porto
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Porto / History / Early history
caption_attribution_description: English: Porto, Sé Catedral
context_page_description: Porto or Oporto, is the second-largest city in Portugal and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city is small compared to its metropolitan area, with a population of 237,559 people. Porto's metropolitan area has an estimated 1.7 million people in an area of 2,395 km², making it the second-largest urban area in Portugal. It is recognized as a gamma-level global city by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group, the only Portuguese city besides Lisbon to be recognised as a global city.
  Located along the Douro River estuary in northern Portugal, Porto is one of the oldest European centres, and its core was proclaimed a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1996, as "Historic Centre of Porto, Luiz I Bridge and Monastery of Serra do Pilar". The historic area is also a National Monument of Portugal. The western part of its urban area extends to the coastline of the Atlantic Ocean. Its settlement dates back many centuries, when it was an outpost of the Roman Empire. Its combined Celtic-Latin name, Portus Cale, has been referred to as the origin of the name Portugal, based on transliteration and oral evolution from Latin.
context_section_description: The history of Porto dates back to around 300 BC with Proto-Celtic and Celtic people being the first known inhabitants. Ruins of that period have been discovered in several areas.
  During the Roman occupation of the Iberian Peninsula, the city developed as an important commercial port, primarily in the trade between Olissipona (the modern Lisbon) and Bracara Augusta (the modern Braga). Porto was also important during the Suebian and Visigothic times, and a centre for the expansion of Christianity during that period.
  Porto fell under the control of the Moors during the invasion of the Iberian Peninsula in 711. In 868, Vímara Peres, an Asturian count from Gallaecia, and a vassal of the King of Asturias, Léon and Galicia, Alfonso III, was sent to reconquer and secure the lands back into Christian hands. This included the area from the Minho to the Douro River: the settlement of Portus Cale and the area that is known as Vila Nova de Gaia. Portus Cale, later referred to as Portucale, was the origin for the modern name of Portugal. In 868, Count Vímara Peres established the County of Portugal, or (Portuguese: Condado de Portucale), usually known as Condado Portucalense after reconquering the region north of Douro.
  In 1387, Porto was the site of the marriage of John I of Portugal and Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt; this symbolized a long-standing military alliance between Portugal and England. The Portuguese-English alliance (see the Treaty of Windsor) is the world's oldest recorded military alliance. 
  In the 14th and the 15th centuries, Porto's shipyards contributed to the development of Portuguese shipbuilding. Also from the port of Porto, in 1415, Prince Henry the Navigator (son of John I of Portugal) embarked on the conquest of the Moorish port of Ceuta, in northern Morocco. This expedition by the king and his fleet, which included Prince Henry, was followed by navigation and exploration along the western coast of Africa, initiating the Portuguese Age of Discovery. The nickname given to the people of Porto began in those days; Portuenses are to this day, colloquially, referred to as tripeiros (English: tripe peoples), referring to this period of history, when higher-quality cuts of meat were shipped from Porto with their sailors, while off-cuts and byproducts, such as tripe, were left behind for the citizens of Porto; tripe remains a culturally important dish in modern-day Porto.
caption: Porto Cathedral, Sé do Porto, built in the 12th century, with Baroque and 20th century modifications
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