Trip to Cidade da Maia - Fórum | Portugal

It rained during all morning and today I decided not to risk going towards the coast, instead I headed inland towards the city of Maia.
The weather has not been suitable for long walks or photo shoots, but over the course of these days shooting with a gray background and limited light I have come to the conclusion that it is easier to control overexposure and despite the photos having all these tones almost monochromatic, they also have a sobriety and honesty in the reality that is transmitted.
As I had already mentioned in previous articles, before going anywhere, I do a brief search to find interesting and noteworthy places, but in this case I already knew where I was going, so I didn't waste a lot of time and went straight to the place.

This city that now makes himself known, results from the duality resulting from the intersection of an extremely important historical past for the country's destiny during the independence process and a new era of development, being considered one of the most advanced municipalities in the country, with strong individual identities, cultural, historical, religious roots and with an important role in industry, innovation and new technologies, constituting an example of economic and environmental development.

I arrived in front of the town hall on Avenida Visconde de Barreiros and when I came across the huge mirrored building, the Lidador Tower, with a very particular architecture that reminds me of a huge lighter, I knew it was time to get the machine and start shooting.
On this ride, we are going to go around the building on the right and end up at the Maia Forum which is at the back of the building.

Right after advancing to the square, on the left side we have Rua Padre António, where the metro transports thousands of passengers throughout the day, in a typical rush of a city that has a generous ambition to regain the importance that one day had in this small country of far-fetched stories.

In the background, the statue of the Lidador, a historical reference point, a unique equestrian statue by the sculptor Lima de Carvalho and inaugurated in 1984 as a tribute to the knight Gonçalo Mendes da Maia who fought alongside D. Afonso Henriques for the independence and enlargement of the portuguese territory, and for that reason it deserves a detailed record ☺

Continuing around the Tower and on Engenheiro Duarte Pacheco Street and with the Forum in sight, it is possible to see in the distance a complex comprised between the building of the Judicial Court and the Labor Court of Maia as well as part of the Hospital, institutions of extreme importance in the managing of a city, but that’s not where I’m going, we’re going to turn left and we’ll enter a small square that surrounds the Maia Forum, the city’s culture and congress center, perfectly integrated into the main urban core, it was designed by the architect José Carlos Loureiro during the 1980s and opened in 1991, and since then it has had a very rich and diverse cultural agenda, it was here that I attended my first photography exhibition.

In the outer space we can see some urban art installations and even a small outdoor amphitheater, also decorated by local artists.

Once completed and back to base, there was still time to register another historical landmark, the statue of Doctor José Vieira de Carvalho, an illustrious member of society, was the “soul” of the start of the Universidade Livre in Porto (1978-1986 ) and founder of ISMAI - Instituto Superior da Maia and beyond, also with an extensive political curriculum.

Time to go down the avenue and poke the point

That´s all for today :)

See you soon

Thank you for watching :)

All photos presented in this article are my own

@aleister