The Fountain of Colher () is a

fountain A fountain, from the Latin "fons" ( genitive "fontis"), meaning source or spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect. Fountains were o ...

in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

Miragaia Miragaia () is a former civil parish in the municipality of Porto, Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in contine ...

, in the

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' ...

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 ...

, under the level of the ''Rua Nova da Alfândega''.

History

Although it had an inscription from 1629, it is likely the construction dates earlier, because in the District Archive of Porto, a registry document in Sé (Livro LXXIX das Sentenças, 1491, p. 151) referred to a conditional contract for 300

réis The first official currency of Brazil was the real (pronounced ; pl. ''réis''), with the symbol Rs$. As the currency of the Portuguese empire, it was in use in Brazil from the earliest days of the colonial period, and remained in use until 1942 ...

, imposed on all homes in Miragaia. The name of the fountain came from the imposed collection of payment for the waters. ''Colher'' is Portuguese for ''spoon'', which was the measure of payment for all goods sold in Porto (bread, flour, walnuts, etc.), which arrived by land or river. The products that arrived by land were paid as tribute at the gate of the Sé to the bishop. Those that arrived by river and normally sold at the fair near the Miragaia shipyards were paid at the fountain. The merchants, for each alqueire of product, was required to pay on ''colher'' (''spoon'') of tribute. The waters of the fountain was considered one of the better quality sources. It is believed that the fountain was one of the oldest, still functioning, structures in the city of Porto. The municipal council tried to appropriate the water from this fountain, ordering the inscription in granite: ''"A água desta Fonte é somente da Sidade"'' (''The water of this fountain is solely of the city''). With the opening-up of the ''Rua Nova da Alfândega'' around 1871, the fountain began to exist under the level of the road, and almost lost in a corner of the buildings. This was done to facilitate the access to building and new customhouse in Porto. In 1940, there were efforts by the municipality of Porto to restore and recuperate the fountain.

Architecture

The fountain abuts the main floor of a residence, underneath a

verandah A veranda (also spelled verandah in Australian and New Zealand English) is a roofed, open-air hallway or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front an ...

, which also doubled as covering/awning. It is alongside the western wall of the ''Largo da Alfândega'' and oriented towards the support wall of the ''Rua Nova da Alfândega''. On either side of the fountain are two ribbed

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s that extend into the

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a wikt:superincumbent, bearing weight, a type of bracket (architecture), bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in t ...

s of the veranda. Between these pilasters are five granite slabs, with the iron waterspout located in the second slab. Another exit point is along the pavement in granite, which takes the form of a small semi-circular pillar. The pavement of the fountain, in granite, is relative to the ''Rua de Miragaia'', three steps above the fountain. Between the corbels, and below the veranda, is an inscription slab, with the words ''"Loubado seja o Santíssimo Sacramento e a Puríssima Conceição da Virgem Nossa Senhora, concebida sem pecado original - 1629"'' (''Exalted is the Holy Sacrament and Pure Conception of the Our Virgin Lady, conceived without original sin (1629)'').

References

Notes

Sources

* * * * {{Porto Chafariz Colher Properties of Public Interest in Portugal