The romantic imaginary of the Douro river

From travellers in the first half of the 19th century to the present day

Resumen

The purpose of this paper is to highlight one of the several possibilities of reading the travels along the Douro river in travel narratives produced by foreigners who visited the Alto Douro Wine Region in the first half of the 19th century, in contrast with some presentday readings. Document analysis was used as the main research method. As a specific genre, travel literature portrays the representation of space, making it possible to reconstitute what we may call journeys of the past and as cultural constructions of their time. But, more than the examination of travel narratives, the research is inscribed in the field of the ways of moving to and through the river, staying in places, the composing the landscape. This study also examines the information contained in the travel guides of the time; the texts are full of descriptions of the Douro river, the rocky vineyards, the terraces, its tributaries and the vertiginous slopes of the Douro valley. But the stories of the difficult journeys undertaken on the Douro river in the fragile rabelo boats are also exciting, given the need to overcome the irregularity of the riverbed, which has long been full of dangers. Assumed the poor conditions of the land routes in the Alto Douro region, the river route was always the most attractive. In fact, until the advent of the railways, the river had a role of escape from the isolation to which the region was condemned. The Douro river was the wine route and maintained the unity of the Douro people in the face of the river’s adversity. Today, with safe navigation, river tourism has emerged as a dynamic product and has gained enormous visibility in the Douro river, always based on the romantic vision that it perpetuates.