Tour Audio a Gondomar

Gondomar sits seven kilometers east of Porto along the Douro River valley, and for most visitors it barely registers as distinct from the city it adjoins. That is a mistake. This municipality of 164,000 produces roughly 42 percent of all jewelry made in Portugal, a concentration of goldsmithing skill rooted in centuries of filigree tradition. The small workshops along side streets in Rio Tinto and Baguim do Monte turn out the delicate twisted wire work that decorates every souvenir shop in Porto, but here it is made by hand in the back rooms of family businesses.

The Douro shapes the character of the lower municipality, its steep terraced vineyards beginning just where Gondomar's parish roads peter out into farms.

The Igreja Matriz, the main parish church inaugurated in the early 17th century, anchors the historic center with a granite facade bearing niches for Cosme and Damiao, the patron saints of medicine and goldsmiths alike. Lamprey and shad from the river remain the local cooking signatures in spring, served in the kind of working-class restaurants that have not bothered updating their menus in forty years.