Bom Jesus Funicular

The Bom Jesus funicular has run since 1882 on nothing but water and gravity: the upper car fills a ballast tank until it outweighs the lower one, then the pair swap places along a short, steep track through the trees. The ride takes only a few minutes, but the mechanism is the point, and you can watch the tanks drain at the bottom station before you board. It climbs beside the Escadorio dos Cinco Sentidos, the baroque zigzag stairway that most visitors walk down afterwards, past fountains built around sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. At the top the terrace opens out over Braga and the Cavado plain, with wooded paths and grottoes behind the church.

History

Work began in 1880 to a design by Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard under the Swiss engineer Nikolaus Riggenbach, paid for by the Braga businessman Manuel Joaquim Gomes, and the funicular opened on 25 March 1882 at a cost of about 30 contos de réis. It was restored in 1946 with materials from the dismantled Monte Railway on Madeira and again in 2006, and in 2012 it was classified as a Monument of Public Interest (Wikipedia, Bom Jesus do Monte Funicular).

Highlights

• The water ballast - tanks filling and draining at each station before the cars move.
• The Escadorio dos Cinco Sentidos - the baroque stairway of fountains beside the track.
• The hilltop terrace - Braga and the plain laid out below the sanctuary church.
• The wooded park - shaded paths, grottoes and small chapels around the summit.

When to go

The funicular runs year round with shorter hours in winter. Sunday mornings bring local worshippers and the busiest stairway; weekday afternoons are calmer. Late light suits the terrace view over the plain. If you only want one ride, take it up and walk the stairway down, which is much the easier direction on the knees.

Before you go

It is a two-minute ride at a price that surprises people expecting a longer trip, and the queue at the bottom can outlast the climb itself. The stairway is genuinely steep for anyone whose knees complain. Braga is often grey and wet outside summer, and the view over the plain flattens into haze in heat.

Nearby

Braga's cathedral and old centre, and the Sameiro sanctuary on the next hill.

Key facts