PORTO CRUISE TERMINAL
The Porto Cruise Terminal opened in 2015 and designed by the Portuguese architect Luís Pedro Silva, is one of the major projects promoted by the Port Authority. It was integrated into the Port of Leixões Strategic Development Plan, which results from a dynamic territorial cooperation, interconnecting two main objectives: to improve the commercial efficiency of the port, associated with cruise activity and a urban integration, associated with increasing sociability with the surrounding population.
It was the biggest project ever to open the port to the city, making the Port of Leixões an important gateway to the region and definitively boosting the number of cruise ships and passengers, increasingly assuming itself as a port of cruises.
The building is already an icon of Matosinhos and North of Portugal Region and a work of great architectural value that completely changed the entire sea coast of the region and has already won several prestigious national and international architecture awards.
In 2015, it was considered the 2nd 'Best Port of the Year' by the 'Seatrade Cruise Awards' in a ceremony that took place in Hamburg, Germany. This distinction aims to distinguish the port that stood out most for its investments in the cruise sector and the promotion of tourism.
The 340m long pier was opened in April 2011, allowing the largest cruise ships to call at Leixões.