Bom Jesus do Monte

The point of Bom Jesus is the ascent. From the foot of the hill a baroque stairway turns back on itself in whitewashed flights edged with granite, and each landing carries a fountain: first the Stairway of the Five Senses, water running from carved eyes, ears, nose, mouth and hand, then the Three Virtues higher up. Chapels along the way hold life-size painted figures. At the top a neoclassical church closes the sequence, with terraces looking north over Braga and the Minho. Beside the stairs runs a funicular opened in 1882 and still moved by water ballast, filling a tank at the top to haul the other car up. UNESCO added the sanctuary in 2019.

History

The hill may have been a place of devotion since antiquity, but the first sign of a chapel on it dates from 1373, a chapel of the Holy Cross rebuilt in the 15th and 16th centuries, and in 1629 a pilgrimage church to the Good Jesus was built with six chapels of the Passion. Archbishop Rodrigo de Moura Telles began the present sanctuary in 1722, paying for the first flights with chapels of the Way of the Cross and for the zigzag Stairway of the Five Senses, and a Baroque church by Manuel Pinto Vilalobos rose at its end around 1725; in the 1760s three octagonal chapels and four fountains of the Evangelists were added behind it, their design attributed to André Soares. Around 1781 Archbishop Gaspar de Bragança added a third stairway, of the Three Virtues, bringing the total to 583 steps, and the old church was pulled down for a Neoclassical one by Carlos Amarante, begun in 1784 and consecrated in 1834; on 7 July 2019 the sanctuary became a World Heritage Site (Wikipedia, Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte).

What you'll find

• The Stairway of the Five Senses - fountains pouring from carved eyes, ears, nose, mouth and hand.
• The Three Virtues flights - the upper zigzags with their allegorical figures.
• The water funicular - counterweighted by a tank of water since 1882.
• The terrace view - Braga and the Minho plain spread out below the church.

When to go

Late afternoon gives the best light on the white plaster and the emptiest stairs; mornings bring coach groups. Holy Week and the September pilgrimage days fill the site completely. The climb is fine in spring and autumn but heavy in July heat - take the funicular up and walk down instead.

Things to know

The stairway is the attraction and the church at the top is plain by comparison, which catches people out. There are roughly six hundred steps and no shade on the lower flights. Weekend crowds park badly and the approach road jams. The hotels and cafes at the summit make the setting feel more like a park than a sanctuary.

Nearby

Braga's cathedral and old centre lie fifteen minutes downhill; Guimaraes is half an hour south.

Key facts