If during the visit to the city, you feel the need to do a "break", join “useful with pleasure” and take a pause to go drink a tea to the Majestic cafe, one of the most beautiful coffee shops of Porto.
It is not by chance that was considered, in the year 2011, the sixth most beautiful coffee shop in the world. Located in the lively Rua de Santa Catarina, Porto downtown, the Majestic is a coffee shop that has been in existence since 1921. At the time, with the name of "Elite", already reveals that it was an establishment more directed to a certain class of distinct people of the Porto society. The name acquired the following year, which remains to this day, suggested a certain French influence, according to the fascinating years of the belle époque.
The importance of the Majestic to Porto, as well as to their relevance for the artistic and cultural life of the city - in the basement there is even an art gallery for conferences and exhibitions, inaugurated in 1994 - earned it even the classification of property of Public Interest, in the year of 1983.
The biographies says that the writer JK Rowling, who lived in Porto until 1994, spent a lot of time in Majestic writing the initial book of famous wizard Harry Potter. Designed by architect João Queirós, the Majestic Cafe is an excellent example of Art Nouveau, with a marble facade adorned with vegetable aspects and sinuous forms, the door is flanked by two statues of children. As for the interior, follows the main Art Nouveau style, with wooden and glass frames superbly elaborated, mirrors arranged in order to visually amplify the space, chandeliers, ceiling medallions, human figures and masks.
Location: Rua Santa Catarina, 112, 4000-442 Porto Portugal.
Opening hours: Monday to Saturday from 9h30 to 24h00.