Porto

Porto's ships were part of Portugal's story long before its wine was. In 1387 the city hosted the wedding of John I and Philippa of Lancaster, which sealed the English alliance, and in 1415 Prince Henry the Navigator launched the conquest of Ceuta from here. Tradition says the better cuts of meat went aboard the fleets and left only tripe for the townspeople, who have been called tripeiros ever since.

Wine took over in the 18th century. Casks came down the Douro in flat-bottomed river boats, and after the Methuen Treaty of 1703 English merchant houses settled in the city and came to control the trade. The Marquis of Pombal struck back with a state wine company and fixed bounds for the Douro vineyards, and when the townspeople rose against its monopoly in 1757 the revolt was crushed. War reached the quays in 1809, when Soult's French troops stormed in and a crowd fleeing across the bridge of boats drowned as it gave way. The city's title came last: in 1832 the liberals of Pedro IV held Porto through more than a year of absolutist siege, and Queen Maria II named it the Unvanquished City.