Porto, Gaia, and the Sant'Ana Arch

Abstract

This study aims to analyse the novel O Arco de Sant'Ana, by Almeida Garrett, one of the most important Portuguese writers of the 19th century. O Arco de Sant'Ana is a historical novel that describes a medieval narrative that is used as a context and emphasis for the presentation of the author's liberal ideas of his time. Using geographical information system as a methodological tool, a literary cartographic analysis will be conducted by identifying places, streets as well as tangible and intangible heritage, described in the novel. Several analyses will be performed to pinpoint the places where the medieval narrative occurs, transposing them to the current urban map. In this way, it should be possible to overlay the literary landscape onto the present map of Porto to offer the tourist a new product based on a journey through time based on the writer's literary work.