Bom Jesus do Monte

We leave the city of Porto to go exactly north to the Miño region whose capital is Braga, the Roman Bracara Augusta.

I am not going to entertain myself too much with the topic of Braga, only to indicate that it had a great religious power for being practically the biggest city in Roman time, for that reason, almost all its monuments are religious. Personally, I think Braga is the best place for religious tourism or sacred art, ahead of Fatima.

Among the large number of monuments and places to see, there is one of mandatory stop: I speak of Bom Jesus do Monte.

How to get there

I believe that the charm of Bom Jesus is to walk from the entrance of Bom Jesus to the top, although in the end one ends up tired, which is the charm of the Sanctuary. There are other alternatives, for example, there is a kind of lift (actually a hydraulic funicular) that can take you to the top, I think it is not too expensive (around two euros) but I have no idea how much it is worth.

You can also leave by bus at the entrance and finally, at the top there are several car parks. From my experience in Braga, one can take advantage of the morning by visiting the historic centre and reach the Sanctuary in the afternoon.

If you decide to walk it, you should go to Avenida João Paulo II, the place is only signposted for cars. You will go straight down the avenue, until you turn off to the right and you will go up little by little. After passing some towns, you will see some red marks that will indicate that you must turn to the left, then you will arrive at the entrance of the Bom Jesus.

As for the return, after visiting the Shrine of Sameiro, it is a good idea to go back the same way. I made a kind of circular route that I saw in Wikiloc and I did not like it too much since most of it was asphalt, although that allowed me to see the landscape better.

A little history...

Although there is knowledge that there was a chapel or church in the fourteenth century, and later in 1629 a church was built for pilgrims dedicated to Bom Jesus (the "Good Jesus") with six chapels showing the Passion of Christ, the current marvel dates back to the year 1722.

In that year, the archbishop of Braga, Rodrigo de Moura Telles, began building the current sanctuary. The work had several extensions: the first around 1760 with three octagonal chapels on some land near the church where the crushing of Jesus was shown. Another was followed in 1781 by Archbishop Gaspar de Bragança who added a new church and a new flight of stairs.

In the 19th century, a small park was created around the area of the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus and in 1882 the funicular that connects the lower part with the upper part of the Sanctuary was created.

The Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte

As I have already indicated, I started from the same Braga following the signs and knew them from before so I went straight until I saw the sign that signaled me to the right. The place that goes up to the entrance is practically all urbanized, so there is not much to mention here. However, you can approach it to see the churches.

One of the reasons why it is worth walking to get to the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus is for its chapels and that is almost the route of the chapels. In total, there are 17 chapels scattered throughout the tour in which scenes of the life of Jesus are shown from some very famous, such as the Last Supper, passing through others such as the Crucifix.

These chapels are not typical of the image of a saint, but as I said are figures of Jesus and other characters of the Bible, where those scenes that everyone knows well, whether Christian or not, are shown in an interesting way.

As you can see in the second photograph, most of them need restoring. I suppose the cold there and the fact that they are only protected by a barrier makes them degrade more easily. Even so, it is a pity that the last three chapels that are near the Sanctuary are covered by glass that does not allow you to take good photographs of the chapels.

In this first part of the sanctuary, called "Escadórios do Bom Jesús" ("Stairs of the Good Jesus" in English) is the path of chapels and stairs and, in general, there are beautiful views of Braga and its surroundings. In this part, it is not too complicated since everything is more or less correct, without any difficulty. In this part we will find the majority of the chapels, where there is a total of 10.

As seen in the first photograph of this section, the Sanctuary itself begins in this part. Which is the real challenge and the real wonder. I do not understand how it is not within the category of the 7 wonders of Portugal because it is difficult to see something similar to this in Portugal.

If you look closely at the photograph of the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus, you can distinguish three parts: the first straight staircase, then zigzag and, finally, a final staircase to the church.

There is not much to say about this first part, it receives the name, "Escadório do Pórtico" ("Porch of the stairs" in English), as there are straight stairs that will take you to two more chapels.

The most difficult part is the so-called "Escadório dos Sentidos", this zig zag route is the one that can tire you out the most. It receives this name because there are 5 statues that represent the five senses, in each of them you can see how the water comes out of each sense. For example, in the statue of the sense of sight, the water comes out through the eyes. The same happens with the other statues with respect to the ear, the hands, the nose and the mouth.

Also, you can see a saint on each side of the stairs, I do not know how many there are but there is a real barbarity.

Finally, we have "Escadório das Três Virtudes". In this final part of the staircase there are three sources dedicated to the theological virtues: Faith, Hope and Charity.

Finally, we will arrive at the esplanade of the church of Bom Jesus that receives the name of "Adro" in Portuguese and of which I do not know its equivalent in English. Leaving aside the wonderful views that you have in this part (although the Basilica of Sameiro are better), here we can see different statues divided into two sides; north and south. Some of these characters represent the moment of the Crucifixion of Christ and, on the other hand, the "evil" characters, who did not make things easy for Jesus like Herod or Pilate.

Personally, I think the most interesting thing is actually the stairs themselves and the set of chapels but since we are here, one should visit the church itself. This church is neoclassical and its construction began in late 1784 and was finished in 1811. It was one of the first neoclassical buildings in Portugal.

The church has a cross shape and in each part it has different altarpieces. My favourite part is the one that can be seen in the photograph above. Although it looks like a birthday cake, it represents all the saints that can be seen on the stairs.

There is little left, by continuing the path on the left you will reach two more chapels. And a little higher, you will get to the last three of which I said I could not take photos because they were protected by glass and I only managed to photograph myself. In that place, it is also not bad to take pictures of the landscape.

And finally, we have the park that is straight from the church of Bom Jesus or can be reached by climbing a small slope from the last three chapels. The park has a small river that you can sail by boat or just rest for a while.

Bars or restaurants (and even luxury hotels) are located in the church area, where most of the people are concentrated. And that's it, if one is left wanting more then there is the Basilica of Sameiro 2km away, of which I will speak in future articles.

Is it worth going to Bom Jesus? Of course, it is a mandatory stop for anyone who is in Portugal and wants to visit Braga. Without a doubt, I loved it and although there are other similar sanctuaries in Portugal, those zigzag staircases with dozens of saints and those chapels with those great images of Jesus' life give a magnificent aspect to the place. Totally recommended your visit.