Architects from both Portugal and overseas have modernised Porto while managing to retain its historic beauty.

Álvaro Siza Vieira, the most respected architect of his generation, is the man responsible for some of the city’s best-known landmarks. Take the example of the Porto School of Architecture. This building eschews large-scale pomposity and instead works in harmony with the surrounding environment.

Also by Siza is the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Serralves Foundation. The 4,500 square metres of exhibition space benefit from scale, proportion and light.

And the House of Music holds its own against any of the other major buildings in the city. Avoiding simply being another segment on the Avenida da Boavista, architect Rem Koolhaas made the House of Music really stand out.