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Photograph by José Zagalo Ilharco, businessman and amateur photographer, author of the first historical photographs of the Velodrome, taken in 1893, before its official inauguration.
Nothing remains of it. However, it is perfectly visible in the satellite photographs of the Soares dos Reis National Museum - an oval-shaped absence. The history of the Rainha D. Amélia Velodrome, inaugurated in 1894, dates back to the days when the Carrancas Palace was the official residence of the royal family when travelling to Porto. Bicycle enthusiast King Carlos I donated the land at the back of the palace to the Real Velo Club do Porto to build a velodrome there: a long circuit that could be covered in one kilometre in three laps, with generous wooden stands.
© Rui Meireles
After the fall of the monarchy, the palace and its velodrome were abandoned - by the time the Soares dos Reis National Museum was built there in the 1940s, nothing remained of the bicycle track. But this ‘nothing’ is still very much present today in the Museum's gardens, in their wide expanse and in the paving that describes an ellipse through the spaces, and where the ends of this ellipse are marked with two semicircles - a memorial designed by the architect Fernando Távora, when he restored this former palace.
Agenda Porto would like to thank the Magalhães Carneiro family, who own the originals of the José Zagalo Ilharco (1860-1910) photographic collection, and the Soares dos Reis National Museum.
© Rui Meireles
by Ricardo Alves
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