Urban Decay in Porto - Strengths and Weaknesses of Portuguese Regeneration Programmes

The historic district of Porto is suffering from extensive physical and socioeconomic degradation, mainly induced by the housing policy during the dictatorship of Salazar. Despite numerous programmes and projects with the aim to improve the poor housing and social conditions implemented the social and physical degradation could not be solved. This article presents the results of a research carried out in Morro da Sé, a neighbourhood of the historic centre of Porto. A lack of political interest in combination with insufficient financial investment made of it a place of degradation and disadvantage over the years. The article examines the various initiatives that sought to reverse the degradation process of this neighbourhood and the reasons for its limited success. The main focus hereby lays on the current attempt to stop urban decay through urban rehabilitation societies (SRU)