The inner courtyard
Stalls under a glass roof.
Tetraktys (Ricardo André Frantz) — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Eugenio Hansen, OFS — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Eugenio Hansen, OFS — CC BY-SA 3.0
The Public Market is Porto Alegre's oldest market and one of its best-loved meeting places. It was built between 1864 and 1869 to a design by the German engineer Frederico Heydtmann, later enlarged with towers at the corners, and stands in the historic centre beside the old city hall, with more than a hundred shops selling spices, yerba mate, gaúcho gear, fish, meat and sweets. The building has survived fires in 1912, 1976, 1979 and 2013, and floods. In May 2024 the waters of Lake Guaíba rose 1.5 metres inside the ground floor, higher than in the famous flood of 1941, and a bronze plaque inside marks both levels. The market reopened in stages in June 2024, and every one of its traders stayed in business. Come for a coffee or lunch in the restaurants upstairs, browse the stalls of yerba mate for chimarrão, the hot drink of the south, and try Banca 40, the long-standing ice-cream stall, or the Gambrinus restaurant, more than a century old.
Stalls under a glass roof.
A 1.5-metre mark.
And southern spices.
Largo Glênio Peres, historic centre, Porto Alegre
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