The Palacete dos Viscondes de Balsemão, which also houses the Porto City Council’s Culture and Heritage Department, is where is located the Material Base and Triplex.

The building was constructed in the mid-18th century by the nobleman, José Alvo Brandão, and was inherited by the Balsemão family and rented in the 1840s by António Bernardino Peixe to build a hostel there. Profound remodelling works of the palace took place in the following decade, when it was acquired by the 1st Visconde da Trindade, José António de Sousa Basto, leading to its current appearance.

At this station, number 6, is the Materials Base, a municipal project that is pioneering at the national level and was attributed awards in 2009 and 2013. Opened to the public since 2010, it promotes the safeguarding of the materials that characterise the city’s public image, collecting them from degraded buildings, or those to be demolished or altered, for the purpose of later returning them to the city.