São Bento is one of the great railway stations of Europe, and it is great not because of its engineering but because of its art. The entrance hall is tiled floor to ceiling with blue-and-white azulejos depicting episodes from Portuguese history: battles, royal processions, scenes of daily life in the Minho and Douro valleys. The painter Jorge Colaço spent more than a decade completing them, and the result is a masterwork of narrative tile art that would be remarkable in any museum. The fact that it is a working train station makes it extraordinary.
The station handles regional services north and east into the Douro Valley — useful if you're planning a day trip to Pinhão or Peso da Régua. But even if you have no train to catch, come here first thing in the morning when the hall is relatively quiet and the light falls at the right angle on the tiles. The building itself, designed by José Marques da Silva and completed in 1916, wears a classical exterior that gives little warning of what waits inside.