5 spots in Porto that remind you of J.K. Rowling (and Harry Potter)
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J.K. Rowling lived in Porto from 1991 until 1992. It was there in the invincible city that her first daughter Jessica was born
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The connection between the author and Porto is a well-known one. For this reason, on the day the latest Harry Potter book is released, we point out 5 Portuguese places that inspired the author.
For about 2 years, Joanne Rowling walked the streets of Porto carrying the manuscript for “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” under her arm. The two years were intense, filled with uncertainty and had their highs and lows. Her marriage to Jorge Arantes turned out to be a big failure, leaving her in a state that she herself described as “bottom of the well”.
The period she spent in Portugal (18 months in total) left such a mark that even today the author avoids the subject in interviews. On her website, she called it “the dark period” of her life. But not everything went wrong. No only did her first daughter came along during the period she spent in the city, but also the project that would change her life drastically - Harry Potter.
This is why, on the day Harry Potter and the Cursed Child hits bookstores, we recall how and why “Jo” came to Porto and some of places crucial to create Harry Potter.
The Getaway to Portugal
J.K. Rowling moved to Porto after the death of her mother Anne, in 1991. For many years her mother fought against a degenerative disease called multiple sclerosis. The death of Anne Volant left a scar in the author’s heart, which would come to be a strong inspiration for the creation of Harry Potter’s background, a young wizard who lost his parents while still a baby.
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| J.K. Rowling lived in Porto for 18 months before moving back to the UK (George Rose/Getty Images) |
“Desperate to get away” — from England and from everything that reminded her of her mother –, Rowling decides to look for an exit. In the newspaper The Guardian, she saw an ad of a Portuguese speaking school looking for an English teacher. After deciding on applying for the job, she moved to Portugal where, for about 2 years, from 1992 until 1993, she worked in Encounter English in Porto.
She brought along the unfinished manuscript of Harry Potter expecting to be able to finish it between classes. The story had emerged in her mind two year before, during a train ride to London. J.K. Rowling had already written stories before, but she was never as enthusiastic as she was about this new one. Maybe because deep down she knew it would become something special.
Without a pen at hand and too shy to ask for one. She sat on her carriage for hours imagining the young boy’s adventures, who was unaware of being a wizard.
A little bit over a year from moving to Porto, the British author met Jorge Arantes on the no longer existing Meia Cave, in Ribeira. It was love at first sight and the two got married shortly afterwards, in October of 1992. On her spare time, between English classes, Rowling would wander from coffeehouse to coffeehouse, looking for inspirations in the streets of Porto while trying to finish “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone”, the first book of the franchise.
But her marriage to Arantes was doomed to fail. “The biggest failure” of the author’s life, so her stay in Porto was a short one. About a year after they met, in December of 1993, Rowling left the Portuguese journalist and came back to UK with her baby daughter, Jessica.
The following period was considered one of the darkest for J.K. Rowling. “Failing meant taking everything that want essential out. I stopped pretending to be something I was not, and focused all my energy in finishing the only work I was interested in” Says J.K on her website. And that “only work” was Harry Potter.
Porto stayed behind in the cafés, where she would scribble the adventures of the young wizard who has a straggly hair and a scar the shape of a lightning bolt on his forehead. Porto stayed in the mythical Livraria Lello ( Lello Bookstore) with it’s intricate wooden staircases. Porto stayed in bars she used to visit along with her friends. Those places, to which she never returned, still remind us of Rowling and her greatest creation, a boy named Harry Potter.
J.K. Rowling’s Porto
1. Majestic Café
The legend goes, that it was on one of the Café’s marble tables that the British author finished the first sketch of Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone. J.K. Rowling used to go to the coffeehouse with her ex-husband, the journalist Jorge Arantes.
The connection between Rowling and the Majestic Café became so popular that many tourists suggested that the coffeehouse puts a sign stating that the author was there.
“But we don’t know where to put it!” Franca-Presse Fernando Barrias, the son of the owner confessed.
It was in fact in Porto that she wrote her favorite chapter of the novel “Mirror of Erised”.
It was in fact in Porto that she wrote her favorite chapter of the novel “Mirror of Erised”.
Aside from Majestic Café, on Santa Catarina, the British author also used to eat at the “Estrela d’Ouro” restaurant, a 70 years old establishment located in “Rua da Fábrica”.
2. Livraria Lello & Irmão
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| The Lello’s staircase is the main attraction of the library, which opened its doors in 1906. |
Livraria Lello’s popularity already crossed the world. Founded in 1906 by the Lello brothers, the bookstore located at Rua das Carmelitas became an instant sensation. As soon as it opened doors, it received an instant innumerous amount of visitors who were curious to see the Neo-gothic style of the building created by the architect Francisco Xavier Esteves, which stands its ground in the street where it was always located.
It has been considered in various number of times one of the most beautiful bookstore in the world. It has been a source of inspiration to many authors and artists, including Harry Potter’s author. It is widely known that the author used to go there and it was from those celebrated wooden stairs that she got the inspiration to create the famous Hogwarts staircase, which doesn’t stop moving, conducting the students to parts of the school where they are not meant to go.
It is for that reason that the Portuguese bookstore was chosen for the “Harry Potter and the cursed child” launch. To those who enter Lello, it is hard not to imagine the intricate staircase of the wizarding school.
3. University of Porto
In fact, it’s not the university itself that is important, but its traditional uniform worn by the students. It was on those Portuguese academic clothes that J.K. Rowling found inspiration to create the long black capes that are part of the Hogwarts’ uniform.
4. Swing Dance Club
On the first page of “Harry Potter and the prisioner of Azkaban”, the third book of the franchise, you can read “To Jill Prewett and Aine Kiely, the godmothers of Swing”. The dedication is one of the few references done by J.K.Rowling herself to the time she lived in Portugal. This one is dedicated to her old flat mates, British Jill Prrewett and the irish Aine Kiely.
Swing was an old dance club located near the Rotunda da Boavista, where “Jo” used to go with her colleagues, who were also teachers at “Encounter English”. Another bar the three girls used to visit was “Meia Cave” in Ribeira.
5. Gardens of Palácio de Cristal
This is one of the places Rowling used to hang in during her time in Porto and where she wrote some parts of “Harry Potter and the Philospher’s stone” in the gardens of Palácio de Cristal (Crystal Palace).
These gardens were designed by the german architect Émile David to surround the “Crystal Palace”, which was created by architect Thomas Dillen Jones having in mind the London counterpart. Inaugurating in 1965, the building was demolished in 1951. On its place stands the Pavilhão dos Desportos, today known as Pavilhão Rosa Mota.
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| The Gardens of Palácio de Cristal are located in Massarelos, Porto. (Amin Chaar / Global Imagens) |
Original Source: https://goo.gl/Nm8Vgy
Chosen & Translated by: Luisa.
Revised by: Badriah.
The Harry potter franchise was an instant success in Portugal, maybe the most recognizable one by the Portuguese people. Our generation grew up watching it, ever since it’s childhood days. These films are rerun on Christmas, Easter, and every time there’s an opportunity for Portuguese TV to show it. And not surprisingly, people always watch it, no matter how many times they have seen them. And knowing that Portugal had such a huge role to play in the creation of that world and those characters makes it even more special. Every Harry Potter fan has the curiosity to visit these spots mentioned in the article, and being such a worldwide successful franchise, it makes those places known to the rest of the world and consequently making Portugal a favored destination.
- Luisa.
1 comments
This is a very interesting article. I am also a big Harry Potter fan. I have spotted quite a few mistakes in the translation, but all in all the text can be understood and appreciated by international readers.
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