The Crystal Palace of the Portuguese International Exhibition at Oporto, 1865

The Exposição Internacional do Porto, known in English as the International Exhibition of 1865, was a

world's fair A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...

held in the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

city of

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

. The exhibition was housed inside the grand '' Palácio de Cristal'', which was modelled on the synonymous

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building * ...

erected for

The Great Exhibition The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held), was an international exhibition which took pl ...

held during 1851 in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. The building's designer was Anglo-Irish civil engineer

Francis Webb Sheilds Francis Webb Wentworth-Sheilds (born Sheilds; 8 October 1820 – 18 January 1906) was an Anglo-Irish civil engineer on the Sydney Railway Company during its construction but before its opening. In Great Britain and Ireland, Sheilds worked on a ...

, who also engineered its construction – he had been the resident engineer for the earlier building between 1852 and 1858. The building was demolished in 1951 after hosting many other expositions.

Background

The exhibition was inaugurated on 18 September 1865 in the presence of the Portuguese king, Luís I and his consort

Maria Pia of Savoy Dona Maria Pia (16 October 1847 – 5 July 1911) was by birth an Italian princess of the House of Savoy and was Queen of Portugal as spouse of King Luís I of Portugal. On the day of her baptism, Pope Pius IX, her godfather, gave her a Golde ...

. Upon inauguration, it became the first world's to occur on the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

. The exhibition was shown until January 1866, and the theme of the event was industrial and trade innovations with an emphasis in primary materials, machinery, manufacture and fine arts.

Organization

Chiefly organized by the ''Associação Industrial Portuense'' (today called the ''Associação Empresarial de Portugal''), the exhibition hosted 3,139 exhibitors, of which 499 were

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ian, 24

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, and 16

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, the

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, the

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and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

were also represented.

References

1865 in Portugal History of Porto Festivals established in 1865 World's fairs in Portugal {{festival-stub