The Porto Brief, Week of 11 October 2026: Porto Wants a Say Over Souvenir Shops, the Council Moves to Buy the Stop's Cinemas, and Portugal Seal a Quarter-Final at the Dragão

Welcome to the Porto Brief, your weekly view from the banks of the Douro. The mayor wants the power to limit souvenir shops the way the city already limits short-term lets, the council has a deal in principle to buy the two old cinemas inside the Stop, and Portugal booked a Nations League quarter-final at the Dragão. Your roundup for 4 to 11 October.

Who decides what the old town sells

Pedro Duarte says Porto will get rules for souvenir shops built on the same principle as its containment zones for short-term rentals. Councils cannot regulate what a shop sells today, so he has asked the government for national legislation that would let them have "a word to say" on how commercial units in historic centres are used, and expects it "in the short term". His target is the spread of shops selling "basically magnets". Short-term rental owners, meanwhile, have commissioned their first white paper.

The council has also confirmed it refused, on 18 August, the Diocese of Porto's application to run short-term lets in the expansion of the Seminário Maior beside the Sé, a 16 million euro project in the UNESCO zone. The diocese did not respond during the prior hearing; a petition against the works had 2,813 signatures on Thursday. An independent working group on the historic centre wants the planning section of the municipal code to carry binding guidance on what must be kept in listed buildings, from wooden window frames and skylights to tiles. On Saturday about 100 people formed a human chain around the Bolhão market, saying tourism is stripping it of its identity, and met a counter-protest from traders in another association, who said the organisers did not speak for them.

At the Câmara

Porto has a pre-agreement with NOS to buy the two former cinemas in the Stop centre, with 240 and about 120 seats, closed for years. The culture councillor, Jorge Sobrado, calls the price "well below market" and wants them as rehearsal and performance space for the bands who work in the building's cramped rooms; fire-safety measures still have to be agreed with Civil Protection, which he expects by the end of the year. The council has opened a 93,974 euro tender for drones for the PSP and the fire brigade (bids close at 17:00 on Tuesday). The municipal assembly approved hosting The Ocean Race until 2040, and a metro train ran the full Pink Line for the first time.

Football, handball and Boavista

Portugal came from behind to beat Norway 2-1 at the Dragão last Sunday. Ajer put Norway ahead on 36 minutes, João Cancelo levelled two minutes later, and Gonçalo Ramos finished a Vitinha and João Félix move on 79 minutes. Four wins from four put Portugal into the quarter-finals; the federation has since opened a disciplinary case against Ronaldo.

FC Porto won 2-1 at Marítimo on Saturday: Froholdt equalised before half-time and the substitute Oskar Pietuszewski settled it late on. The club's company reported a 21.1 million euro loss for 2025/26, after a record 39.2 million profit a year earlier, which it puts down mainly to record squad spending of about 110 million euros last summer; operating revenue still rose 13 percent. At the Dragões de Ouro gala, the football team of the year award went to Estela Costa, widow of Jorge Costa. The handball side lost 40-32 in Berlin to Füchse and host them in the Champions League next week. Boavista's main creditors rejected the club's recovery plan; it stays open, with 31 sports and about 1,500 athletes, and must table a new plan by 31 October. Rio Ave paid Arouca a one million euro release clause for Vasco Seabra, signed to 2029.

Police and courts

The PSP arrested 15 people on Wednesday in a drug raid centred on the Pinheiro Torres and Pasteleira Nova estates and reaching Gaia, Matosinhos and Vila do Conde, seizing more than 17,000 doses of cocaine, about 6,300 of cannabis, firearms and over 340,000 euros in cash. The GNR held seven men in Marco de Canaveses, Penafiel and Gaia with more than 15,600 doses. Prosecutors charged five people over the 2024 brawl at NorteShopping in which a 16-year-old was stabbed to death, and a Ukrainian man who fled after killing another man in a Porto guesthouse in 2001 was jailed for 13 years and will be expelled.

Around the north

About 1,500 people rallied against rents and the cost of living outside the Rivoli on Saturday, one of four cities to march, and some two dozen pitched tents in the square. The Leixões movable bridge closed for a few hours on Wednesday with a fault on its northern deck, mid-way through a 14-month, 4.5 million euro refurbishment; use the A28 if it happens again. In Paredes, Lithuania's Axioma Metering laid the first stone of a 30 million euro water-meter factory in Lordelo, promising about 200 jobs. And Gaia is still fighting its high-speed station at Santo Ovídio as works on the line begin.

What's on, and the weather

The 37th Festival Internacional de Marionetas do Porto runs until 18 October. The Belgian company Karyatides stages Les Misérables at the Teatro Carlos Alberto today and on Tuesday, and the European Transport project brings miniature lorries and airports to the Rivoli, the Campo Alegre and Matosinhos's Constantino Nery. On Friday the Brazilian band Roupa Nova play the Super Bock Arena (45 to 120 euros), followed on Saturday by RFM's "Que Grandioso Espetáculo é Este?" (22 to 42 euros). Next Sunday the Casa da Música has two Estação Casa da Música sessions, at 10:00 and 11:30 (12.50 euros). More dates are on our events calendar. A heatwave is likely across much of the country, but Porto stays milder: about 20 to 21 °C early in the week, rising to around 25 °C by Wednesday, with no rain forecast before midweek.

That is the week in the Invicta. If we have missed a story on your doorstep, just hit reply. The Portugal Brief

Feature image: inside the restored Mercado do Bolhão, by Renhour48 (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons.