The rings of Porto

Did you spot them when you were there? It took us until our second day. I was photographing a rather delightful building covered in azulejos when I spotted the rings. These were probably some of the most elaborate we came across.

We had two theories why they were there. The first I came up with when I recalled something I had seen in Amsterdam. Perhaps their purpose was to enable the building occupants to transfer heavy furniture with ropes up to the upper floors!

MrB quickly pointed out though they were not always located above windows and there wasn’t a pulley system. I concurred that my theory was unlikely to be correct, and when I spotted them on a couple of churches I rejected it completely!

Our next theory was a joint one and far more plausible. We decided they were there to facilitate maintenance work such as painting or re-tiling the building, or perhaps even they were there for window cleaners. I had after all seen painters abseiling down a building in Lisbon so window cleaners abseiling down made sense! To find out for definite we spoke to a Porto resident who had a passion for Porto’s buildings and had recently restored. But before I tell you what he said – why do you think they are there?

Luís, our AirB&B host, said that they are left over from when the buildings were constructed, and whilst not every building owner decided to leave them in situ a significant proportion had. Luís indicated that most had kept them because they were fixed into the wall, which kind of makes sense. However a little part of me still thinks, given the elaborate style of some of them, that it was a deliberate building technique to have these scaffolding/rope ring bolts fixed in the walls in order to facilitate future maintenance work.

Whatever the history and whatever the purpose though I had great fun looking for them on our Porto strolls. How many can you spot in the picture below?!Who has rings and who doesn't?!

Author: BeckyB

It had been a good life walking, cooking, photographing, volunteering, blogging, and best of all spending time with MrB, family, & friends. Sadly it is no longer what it was, as suddenly and unexpectedly I became a widow.

26 thoughts

    1. I love the fact you always visit my posts a little later than everyone else because it makes me visit them again 😁
      Porto is such a great city. All being well I’ll back there in September.

      1. Yes, indeed I do, I hope that’s okay. I follow too many blogs. :p But I like to be thorough and see all or most of the blogs I follow, even if a bit later. It feels great if somebody is reading my back blog posts too, so I have a feeling it’s just fine with you. 🙂

        1. Absolutely fine – I really do love it. As you say it feels great. I am also awe of the fact you do this – an incredible and inspiring achievement.

  2. Interesting to find out about these rings. Thanks for sharing! I am off to Porto soon with my friend and am getting excited! I have a poetry blog here on WordPress and today’s post is about a cactus in Lanzarote in case you have time to look?! Sunny greetings from Switzerland, Sam 🙂

    1. ooh can’t resist cacti after my recent post on prickly pears, I will have a look later 🙂

      and thank you so much for your lovely comment, do hope you have a fabulous time in Porto. And if you discover anything on the rings whilst you are there let me know!

  3. Pingback: Discovering Porto’s panoramic views – It caught my eye in Portugal

  4. Hmm. I’ll keep an open mind on the explanations. A lot depends on how much the rings could support and as some of them look as though made of terracotta I doubt if they would support much heavy furniture being dragged up to top floors. I;m sure you’ve researched the subject thoroughly, so i won;t bother delving further but will await further postings from you!

    1. Pretty sure you are right on the furniture theory . . . . they looked more like metal to me though than terracotta. I am positing a few more shots on them tomorrow – no more theories though at this stage. Think I need to go back to Porto to be confident of their purpose.

  5. This was interesting, I wonder now. But your points were logical. I only know ring like that, on the doors… 🙂 Thank you dear Becky, Love, nia

  6. They look like the rings you find in the sidewalks in the wild west to hitch the horses. Probably that would not work well there! 🙂 I just read Jos’ comment! Great minds! 🙂

        1. I have more photos coming tomorrow of them which might help if not a good excuse for me to return to Porto soon to discover for definite!

        2. Puerto Rico is getting slammed right now, aren’t they, Becky? Wonder how much damage hurricane season has caused this year.

  9. Heavens! What an observant pair you are! My instant foot-in-mouth reaction was for tethering your horse. But I have neither a horse nor a very long bridle 🙁 🙁

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