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The rabelos, the flat-bottomed boats that can be seen anchored everywhere along the river bank, illustrate well the important but very different roles that the Douro has played in time in the life of Porto. They were once an essential piece of infrastructure for the economic activity of the city. They used to bring the barrels containing the port wine produced upstream in the Douro region. Old photographs show a multitude of them unloading their precious cargo, which was then to be stored and aged in the cellars in Vila Nova de Gaia before being distributed around the world.
Those days are long gone, but in a way the rabelos are no less important today than they were in the past. Nowadays they are there like props in a play that help create an atmosphere. They are there to be seen, much more than to be used. Attracting visitors, exciting their imagination, making them dream about a lost past is now the real purpose of these boats.
In many respects the Douro has shared this fate.
