Cultural places in Portugal

Church • Porto, Porto

The Igreja e Museu de São Francisco are located on Rua da Bolsa, in Porto’s historic heart. The Church of the Convent of São Francisco, classified as a National Monument since 1910, began to be built in 1383, linked to the Franciscan presence in the city. Its Gothic architecture, with three naves, received over the centuries an interior decoration of great intensity, marked by Baroque gilded woodcarving from the 17th and 18th centuries. This contrast between the sobriety of the medieval structure and the ornamental brilliance is one of the ensemble’s strongest features. Among the works, the mural painting of Senhora da Rosa and the Tree of Jesse altarpiece stand out. The museum route continues in the Casa do Despacho, designed by Nicolau Nasoni and completed in 1749, with the Treasury Room, the Sessions Room and the Catacomb Cemetery. Stone, gold and funerary memory reveal here several layers of Porto’s religious and artistic history.

Church • Porto, Porto

The Torre e Igreja dos Clérigos rise in the heart of Porto, between Rua dos Clérigos, Rua de São Filipe de Nery and Rua da Assunção. The ensemble was designed by the Italian architect Nicolau Nasoni for the Irmandade dos Clérigos, founded in 1707. The first stone of the church was laid in 1732, and construction of the tower began in 1754, being completed in 1763. Classified as a National Monument since 1910, the ensemble is one of Nasoni’s most prominent works in northern Portugal. The church reveals an elliptical plan and a Baroque façade with a strong scenic quality. The granite tower rises in six storeys to a height of 75 metres, with 225 steps to the top. Between the verticality of stone, Baroque decoration and the view over the Douro, the Clérigos condense Porto’s architecture, devotion and urban image.

Church • Porto, Porto

The Igreja do Carmo, in Porto, stands beside the Igreja dos Carmelitas, between Rua do Carmo and Praça de Carlos Alberto. The church belongs to the Venerable Third Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, established in 1736. The first stone was laid in 1756, with a design by José de Figueiredo Seixas, and the church was completed in 1762, after Nicolau Nasoni had endorsed the architectural plan. Part of the ensemble classified as a National Monument in 2013, it is distinguished by its Rococo façade, full of decorative movement, with images of the prophets Elijah and Elisha, Saint Anne and the four Evangelists. Inside, the gilded woodcarving of the chapels and high altar extends the ornamental richness. The side façade, covered with blue and white tiles in 1907 and 1912, represents Carmelite devotion and has become one of the city’s most recognisable surfaces.

Church • Porto, Porto

Porto Cathedral rises on the Terreiro da Sé, in the historic heart of the city, as a Romanesque-Gothic cathedral marked by successive transformations. Classified as a National Monument in 1910, it preserves traces of the Romanesque building begun in the first half of the 12th century and continued until the early 13th century. Its fortress-church silhouette, with a façade flanked by two towers, battlements and a rose window, reveals the austere strength of the medieval construction. The building received Mannerist and Baroque alterations, among them the lateral galilee of 1736, by Nicolau Nasoni, facing the city. The Gothic cloister, associated with the time of King João I, contains 18th-century tile panels. Between ancient stone, gilded woodcarving and open views over Porto, the Cathedral shows the city’s religious, artistic and urban continuity.