The Tidal Pools of Leça da Palmeira () is a public swimming pool on the beach of

Leça da Palmeira Leça da Palmeira () is an area in the Portuguese city of Matosinhos north of the Leça river. It was a civil parish until 2013, when it was merged with the parish of Matosinhos, forming Matosinhos e Leça da Palmeira. The parish covered and had ...

Matosinhos Matosinhos () is a City#Portugal, city and a Concelho, municipality in the district of Porto District, Porto in Portugal. The municipality covers an area of approximately and had 172,557 inhabitants in 2021. It is bordered by the municipalities o ...

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

, in the district of

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. The structures consist of two

natural pool The , also referred to as Natural Pool or ("Turtle Pen"), earned its name from the historical presence of turtles in the pool. This natural saltwater tide pool is situated in the North conservation zone of Arikok National Park. Conchi is enc ...

s filled with fresh sea water, designed and built between 1960 and 1973 by Portuguese architect

Álvaro Siza Vieira Álvaro Joaquim de Melo Siza Vieira (born 25 June 1933) is a Portuguese architect, and architectural educator. He is internationally known as Álvaro Siza () and in Portugal as Siza Vieira (). Early life and education Siza was born in Matosi ...

. It is one of Siza Vieira's early projects and it is his second design in Leça da Palmeira following his work in the Boa Nova tea room, located to the north of the pools. In 2011, the pools were classified as a national monument and since 2017 they have been considered for

UNESCO world heritage World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between sovereign states and/or international organizations that is governed by int ...

, together with the Boa Nova tea room and six other projects. The pools are also the only Portuguese building included in

Thom Mayne Thom Mayne (born January 19, 1944) is an American architect. He is based in Los Angeles. In 1972, Mayne helped found the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), where he is a trustee and the coordinator of the Design of Cities po ...

's book ''100 Buildings: 1900-2000''. The pools are open seasonally between June and September and are operated by the municipal company Matosinhos Sport.

History

The pools were projected in 1960 and their construction came to an end in 1973. The final design excluded a restaurant in the north area of the pool, which had been included in a plan from 1961. In 2011, the building was classified as a national monument and in 2017 it was included in Portugal's tentative lists for UNESCO world heritage together with other works by the architect. The pools were renovated several times over the past decades. In June 2004, 150 000 € were spent to repair its facilities, following vandalism from theft of 500 square meters of copper covering and pipping six months prior. Between 2019 and 2021, 1.3 million € were spent to address issues in the pools' reinforced concrete structure, the main tank and the salt water filtration system, among other. Siza Vieira was involved in the renovation works and altered the work's design in the northern section where the planned restaurant was never built.

Architecture

The facility is situated on the rocky outcrops in a linear form, paralleling the ''Avenida da Liberdade'' and the ocean, framed by the landscape. The saltwater pool has an irregular, rectangular plan, constructed over the outcrops and structured along the linear wall that delimits the beach. Access to the structure is conditioned by a route framed by raw cement, along which there are orthogonal and linear views that induce the view to look at focal points of the landscape. Below the walls are various support structures. According to architect Alves Costa, the structure was an attempt at integration at the site that created an artificial world within the natural landscape, as if the artificial was normal to nature.

References

Notes

References

* * {{citation , last=Alves , first=Virgínia , contribution=IPPAR rende-se ás obras de Siza , title=Jornal de Noticias , location=Porto, Portugal , date=9 February 2004 , pages=23 , language=Portuguese Swimming venues in Portugal Tidal pools Leca Palmeira Tidal pool Leca Palmeira Álvaro Siza Vieira buildings Modernist architecture in Portugal