In 1975, the supertanker Jacob Maersk crashed against a rock off the coast of Porto. Seven lives were lost in the tragedy and 88,000 tonnes of crude oil spilled into our sea—one of the largest oil spills in living memory. However, on a day we lost so much, we also gained a lot.
We gained a united people who came together in an extraordinary collective effort to confront the catastrophe, showing the world what the people of Porto were made of. And we gained a symbol that, for twenty years, honoured both the memory of those who were lost and the spirit of those who endured: the bow of the Jacob Maersk.
In 1995, for public health and environmental reasons, the bow was removed and, with it, the tribute itself. From the wreckage a memorial had been born, and from the memorial a landscape—one that carried the collective memory of a Porto that witnessed the tragedy and of the Porto that followed, which knew only its symbol.
In 1995, the landscape was stripped of its memory, its homage, and its history.
In 2023, we proposed giving the bow back to Porto.

Text by Miguel Durão

Look at the bow that makes Porto a ship.
It places Matosinhos on the starboard side and Gaia on the port side.
It turns Boavista into a deck.

Listen to the sea beating against your hull, your Foz.
The seagulls searching for Bolhão and the dawn heralded by the market cry: that is your voice.

Feel your people, Porto.
Hundreds of thousands of crew members who won’t let you sink, and a helmsman whose hand never trembles as he points the way.

Inspire your crew, Porto, and if you keep filling them with inspiration, you’ll be hard to stop.
Only those who stop inspiring breathe their last.

Prove, Porto, that you are more than wine.
Show that what matters most of all you export is the spirit.
It is what makes you shine amidst the sea.

Look at the bow, a tribute to the end of a journey that marks the beginning of Portugal.