The history of the Douro wine region runs from about 2,000 years of wine making in the valley to the demarcation of 1756, the arrival of the railway in the 1870s and 1880s, the dams that made the river navigable, and the inscription of the Alto Douro Wine Region as UNESCO World Heritage in 2001.

This page lists the main dates in the history of the Douro and the people who shaped it.

Timeline of the Douro

About 2,000 years ago: wine making begins in the Alto Douro, according to UNESCO.
12th century: Cistercian monks settle in the region, at the monasteries of São João de Tarouca and Salzedas, and cultivate vines.
17th century: wine from the Douro is shipped from Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia to England and northern Europe, and becomes known as the wine of Porto.
10 September 1756: a royal charter of King José I, under the Marquis of Pombal, creates the Companhia Geral da Agricultura das Vinhas do Alto Douro, which demarcates the region and regulates the production and trade of its wine.
From 1758: granite markers are placed to mark the limits of the demarcated region.
19th century: oidium and then phylloxera destroy much of the vineyard, which is replanted on American rootstocks.
12 May 1861: Joseph James Forrester dies when his boat capsizes at the Cachão da Valeira, a gorge of the river.
15 July 1879: the Douro railway line reaches Peso da Régua, and on 1 June 1880 it reaches Pinhão.
9 December 1887: the railway reaches Barca d'Alva on the Spanish border, and on the same day the link to Salamanca opens.
1932 and 1933: the Casa do Douro, the Instituto do Vinho do Porto and the guild of Port wine exporters are created to organise the region and its trade.
1970s and 1980s: five dams with navigation locks are built on the Portuguese Douro, from Crestuma-Lever near Porto to Pocinho.
1988: the railway between Pocinho and Barca d'Alva closes, and Pocinho becomes the end of the line.
December 2001: UNESCO inscribes the Alto Douro Wine Region on the World Heritage List.

People in the history of the Douro

Marquis of Pombal (1699 to 1782): the chief minister of King José I, who created the company that demarcated the region in 1756.
Dona Antónia Adelaide Ferreira (1811 to 1896): known as the Ferreirinha, a wine producer who expanded her estates in the Douro, and whose pressure helped extend the railway beyond Pinhão to the Spanish border.
Joseph James Forrester (1809 to 1861): a British wine merchant and mapmaker, made Baron of Forrester, who drew detailed maps of the Douro wine region and its river, and died at the Cachão da Valeira.

The rabelo boats

Use: flat-bottomed sailing boats that carried barrels of Port wine down the river from the estates of the Alto Douro to Vila Nova de Gaia.
Steering: a long steering oar at the stern, worked from a raised platform, replaced the rudder.
Decline: the railway and then road transport replaced the rabelo boats, and the dams ended their traditional journey down the river.
Today: rabelo boats are moored on the Gaia riverfront and used for regattas and short river trips.