While Porto is at present one of the most important cities in Portugal, its beginnings do not necessarily match its current economic, cultural and tourist prestige. It’s true during the Roman age, when, in fact, the entire Iberian Peninsula was dominated by the Romans, the region now known as Porto used to play an important role in the trade between Lisbon and Braga, but it was not until centuries later that Porto actually became a point of reference for the economic life of Portugal.
Thus, a settlement was determined to have been founded on the north bank of the Duoro River somewhere in the 4th century BC, a settlement from the name of which the contemporary name of Portugal derives: Portus Cale, later transformed in Portucale