The Roundabout of Street Art - Part IV - The Hidden Mural

Good afternoon, fellow Steemians!

It seems like I haven't made an article about Graffiti in a few time, so today I bring you a couple of pieces found in my own birth town of Porto.

These murals depict several landmarks and buildings located nearby, well known to every inhabitant of Porto. Some of them no longer exist. I'll tell you a little bit about each place...

• Praça Mouzinho de Albuquerque is the official name of a roundabout which every Porto citizen knows as Rotunda da Boavista (Good Sight Roundabout). It's a large roundabout, with a garden full of large trees, where several events take place, mostly during the Summer. At its middle, there's a historical landmark celebrating the victory of the Portuguese against the French troops which invaded Portugal during the Peninsular War (1807-1814).

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• Avenida da Boavista (Good Sight Avenue) is a 5.5 km straight avenue, that starts by the beach and ends at the above mentioned roundabout. It is (and it has always been) a luxurious part of the city, and the closer you get to the sea, the larger and the more flamboyant the houses are. There are a lot of mansions with huge private gardens, tennis courts and swimming pools that you can't even dream about - when you walk past by them in the street. Some of those mansions owners didn't make it through the crisis and were forced to sell them. A lot of private entrepreneurs took advantage and bought mansions to set up their businesses - including some schools and private learning institutes.

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• Capela do Bom Sucesso (Good Success Chapel) - This is a small and privately owned chapel located across the street from the Mercado do Bom Sucesso (Good Success Market). This chapel was the source of a big debate, when the city started planning the building of a shopping center right next to it. Many people wanted to tear it down but the owner always refused to sell it. He was outraged that the city hall wanted to demolish it to build another sterile shopping center. When all was said and done, the city hall had no other option than to make adjustments so that the shopping center could be build without taking down this little chapel. At the left side of the chapel, on the building you see in the mural, there's a famous café nowadays - Casa Agrícola - and you can access the shopping by entering this café and leaving through the rear entrance.

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• Fonte do Bom Sucesso (Good Success Fountain) - This little fountain was built in the 18th century, an it used to be located at the right side of the Capela do Bom Sucesso (Good Success Chapel). Unfortunately, progress won and now there is only a street and a sidewalk where this fountain used to be. The owners didn't want to see it destroyed, though... and thus, they've relocated the fountain to a farm in Barcelos, a city located 50 km to the north of Porto, where it still stands today.

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• Mercado do Bom Sucesso (Good Success Market) - This is a historical building which served as a traditional market for many decades. It was one of the main and largest markets of the city. It has been recently modernised and transformed into a more profitable business - unfortunately, at the expense of the market vendors, who were forced to relocate to other markets.

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• Real Coliseu Portuense (Royal Colosseum of Porto) - This was a short lived building. It was opened at the end of June 1889 and it was demolished 6 years later, on May of 1895. 😂 Later, in 1908 a church was built in its place. Why was it demolished? I guess the Bull Fighting spectacles lost their popularity at the same time the Monarchic Regime started crumbling down.

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Here are a few photos of the whole mural. This mural is situated behind a graveyard, in a street rarely visited by tourists.

The locals, however, use this street a lot, as a shortcut between the Market, Shoppings and Restaurants and the Avenida da Boavista (Good Sight Avenue). The unsuspecting tourists usually take around 30 mins to walk the same distance, because they don't know about this shortcut. 🙃

As you can see in the photo below, the graveyard is just behind these walls...

Finally, I tried using my new camera Panoramic Feature to grab the whole mural in a single shot. I think it came out ok. It's not perfect, but you can see the 6 pieces that compose this mural.

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These pieces are just like the ones I've showed in the second part of this series, last year. They were probably painted by the same artist (or group of artists). Here are the previous parts in this Graffiti collection, in case you want to see some more cool Graffiti located in the area.

• The Roundabout of Street Art - Part I - The Graffiti
• The Roundabout of Street Art - Part II - The Mural
• The Roundabout of Street Art - Part III - Boémia Caffé
• The Roundabout of Street Art - Part IV - The Hidden Mural

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Camera	Panasonic Lumix DC-TZ90
Location	Porto - Portugual
	Edited with GIMP

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