Yes, I do I do I do. And if I caught you’re attention then keep on reading:
If you’ve been on my blog for a while (or if you stalked it enough since you’re been here) then you know I’m a Portuguese girl currently living in the city of Porto, in the north of Portugal. Now if you google a bit about J. K. Rowling’s life you’ll easily find out that she lived in Porto too for a while (she even married a Portuguese man and had a daughter here). Want to know what else Jo did here? She started writing The Harry Potter Saga.
Now I’ve known this for a few years but only in the past year did I start noticing some similarities between my city and its costumes and the Harry Potter world. I’m more in love with Porto as time passes by and the girl that wanted to get away is starting to thing she doesn’t want to let go… But on to what you actually want to read about! Here is a list of the things I found in Porto that make it the original Hogwarts in my mind:
Hogwarts Uniforms
Here in Portugal we have a tradition in college called “Praxe”. It’s not compulsory but a lot of students like to join in. It’s supposed to be a way of integrating the first year students (although some people take it a bit too far sometimes, but hey… Slytherins…(I’m just kidding, peace guys peace)). For that tradition students use a uniform almost on a daily basis (it’s our academic uniform so to speak, “traje académico” in portuguese). Take a look and see if it seems familiar!
Hogwarts Grand Staircase
One of the main tourist attractions in Porto is our oldest and most beautiful bookstores. You better believe I would bet all my books on how Jo went there! Take a look at Lello Bookstore’s staircase and draw your own conclusions:
Hogwarts Houses
Hogwarts has colors depending on the house of the student, in Porto we have colors depending on the degree’s subject of the student. We use them in stripes attached to our uniform bags. Mine is a brownish-red, because I’m in Engineering. The student in this picture must be in International Relatioships:
The next points are a lot more subtle but I added them to the list anyway…
Gryffindor’s Lion
In front of Porto’s University Main Building (where the college director works) you can find an important fountain where students spend a lot of time around chatting and laughing. It’s also were some of the “Praxe” ceremonies happen. Supposedly there’s a statue similar to this in front of Dumbledore’s office.
Slytherin’s Salazar
I’ve recently also heard a theory that Salazar Slytherin’s character was inspired by the 50’s portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar.
What are your thoughts on all of this? Share them in the comments, I’m really curious to hear what you guys think of it!
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