The Palacio Bolsa is neither a palace nor a stock exchange. It is the headquarters of the Commercial Association of Porto. To visit the interior, you have to take a guided tour for €10. It's a timed tour that lasts 30-40 minutes. It's easiest to show up in person and see when the next English tour is. You can even buy a ticket for the next day.
The tour starts in the Main Hall with the coats of arms of 20 trading partners.
The US one is easy to pick out.
The room is richly decorated, right down to the tiled floor.
The Grand Staircase takes you upstairs to continue the tour.
The chandeliers that hang in the Grand Staircase are the first ones using electricity in Porto.
From upstairs, you get another view of the Main Hall.
You'll get to see several rooms, each beautifully decorated. This is the Sala do Tribunal merchant and customer disputes were heard and resolved. Ornately carved seatings for the jurors are on two sides of the room.
You'll also see gifts from foreign countries.
This was the office of Gustave Eiffel.
The highlight of the tour is the Arabian Hall. It was inspired by Granada's Alhambra and took 18 years to built.
It's decorated in the Moorish style with wood, plaster and gold leaf.
A deliberate mistake was made to show that only God is perfect and humans make mistakes. The mistake is that the center of the room doesn't line up with the center of the door.
2022 05 08
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