Virtudes Promenade XII.

The city opens itself to the West towards the Douro river’s mouth, with the Virtudes Promenade peeking at a high elevation. The beginning of the 19th century will consolidate this sprawl, after the triumph of Liberalism, attested by the construction of the new Custom House, in 1851, at the old beach of Miragaia – intended to improve the outflow of products by river and sea –, and by the inauguration of the Palácio de Cristal, in 1865, which clearly reflected the city’s economic and technological renewal.