We Went to Prison

In Porto

We spent three days in Porto. Part of one of those days we spent in prison. “Oh no,” you gasp. “What did you do wrong?” Nothing, today the prison is a museum.

A view from a prison/museum window....

Relação Prison

Housed in a former prison, the Portuguese Center for Photography, is now a free museum. It was recommended to us by my language partner, Ettore, who had explained it had once been a women’s prison. We were as interested in seeing a 19th-century version of Orange is the New Black as we were the photography so off we went.

The colors on the wall, the marvelous floor and a former prisoner.

While the prison did at one time house women, its most famous “guests” were men.

The first, Zé do Telhado (1818-1875), is known as Portugal’s Robin Hood. He enlisted in the Portuguese Army first in 1837 in a failed attempt to restore the Constitional Charter, and then again in 1846 during the Revolution of Maria da Fonte. While he was recognized for his bravery, he also compiled debts which he was unable to pay. He became a bandit and was imprisoned in Porto in 1859 prior to being exiled to Angola.

The second, a prolific writer Camilo Castelo Branco (1825-1890) penned more than 260 works. He was imprisoned twice in his life…both times demonstrating the romanticism for which he was known. On the first occasion he was arrested for unearthing the remains of his first wife, a woman he had married at 16 and who had died 8 years later. The second, imprisonment (at Relação Prison) was for having an affair with a married woman. It was during this longer stay that he wrote Amor de Perdição, a Portuguese version of Romeo and Juliet.

“I wrote the novel in 15 days, the most tormented of my life.”, confessed Camilo Castelo Branco in the preface to the second edition of Amor de Perdição”. The story tells the passion between Simão and Teresa, children of enemy families, who would rather die than give up the love that unites them. Mariana, who has an unrequited love for Simão, follows him into death.

Oddly enough, Telhado’s life inspired a silent movie and Amor de Perdição (Doomed Love) became a telenovela.

Photography

It will take you about 90 minutes to view the many cameras on display. You will see one’s as large as that above, and other so small you might see them in a James Bond movie hidden inside a pen.

There are also rotating photography exhibitions. When we were there, one hall was dedicated to photographs capturing movement. Whether you go for the prison or the photography you will enjoy this free attraction in the middle of Porto.