[Porto] Santa Maria Church in Marco de Canavezes - Alvaro Siza

[SWANK-E]

The Santa Maria Church in Marco de Canavezes (near Oporto) is part of an overall complex that, together with a planned Parish Centre, forms a small urban square.

How to get there:
Apparently the suburban train line of Oporto has a Marco de Canavezes line, but I am not able to find where the actual station is located.

Could a local please help?

[SWANK-E]

with the help of Pedro Barradas, we were able to find out its inhospitable context (very different from the published shots which looks like it's in a romantic village setting)

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and the KMZ (took me hours to find this!)

[vOid]

Kevin:
Here's a link for the national railway with the line from Porto to Marco, and the GE file with the station.
Marco_train_station.kmz
From the station you should be able to get a bus to town centre, since it's a little far. Taxis are not too expensive either and are usually available.
Hope this helps.

[SWANK-E]

Originally Posted by vOid

Kevin:
Here's a link for the national railway with the line from Porto to Marco, and the GE file with the station.
Hope this helps.

oh good, so that is the correct station (it seems Marco de Canvezes is a 'region'). wasn't sure if that was the actual suburban train station.

thanks

[jparchitectus]

Wow- The project in its context totally changes things. I never knew it was dropped in that type of landscape.

Does the site drop off or just turn to natural landscape after the highway?

[SWANK-E]

Originally Posted by jparchitectus

Wow- The project in its context totally changes things. I never knew it was dropped in that type of landscape.

Does the site drop off or just turn to natural landscape after the highway?

take a look at the kmz and switch on terrain... your guess is as good as mine until i visit it

[SWANK-E]

I just noticed I haven't posted pictures/report about this church.

As vOid said, taxi's are not expensive, so from the train station, there 'should' be 1 or 2 taxis waiting for the train passengers. The 1 available taxi was snatched up by an old lady (fair enough) so I walked up the hill. Took about half an hour at least. Definitely easier going back down!

The church (the big white box on top of the hill) as seen from the station.

[SWANK-E]

Context shots. That's the main street of Marco da Canaveses. On a sunday morning, certainly not many cars.

So according to the aerial shot at the top of the thread, that triangle space full of cars is now full of trees.

[SWANK-E]

Well... maybe not FULL of trees, but it's got trees. But it is one of the forecourts before you ascend to the podium square.