The Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte, as we know it today, is the result of multiple architectural interventions, combined with a significant effort of aesthetic updating and catechesis that, since the late 15th century, reaffirm the religious vocation of this space. Several artists from Braga worked on its construction, mainly during the Baroque period, as the scenographic features of the stairs and the concept of a pilgrimage church were essentially accentuated during this time. Likewise, the name of Archbishop D. Rodrigo de Moura Teles is indissolubly linked to it, as he endowed the entire complex with architectural and iconographic unity, while also celebrating his own power as a member of the church. He placed his coat of arms on the portico that begins the route. The works on the temple continued, however, until the 19th century, and although the Baroque language predominates throughout the space, there are multiple testimonies of Rococo and Neoclassicism. The first religious building erected in this place by order of Archbishop D. Jorge da Costa dates back to 1494. It was successively rebuilt in the years 1522 and 1629, with the six chapels of the Passion, the pilgrims’ houses, and the appointment of a hermit dating from this last campaign. In other words, if the idea of the Passion of Christ associated with a journey through the mountain (understood as a path of salvation) was present from the beginning, it was after the intervention of 1629 that it became more effective, culminating in the 18th century with a project by D. Rodrigo de Moura Teles and D. Gaspar de Bragança. In fact, in 1722 the entire complex was reformulated, standardized, and the layout defined, starting from the portico with the archbishop’s coat of arms, leading to eight new chapels and their respective fountains with mythological figures, which confronted Christian Truth and Faith with the falsehood emanating from other cults. In the Terreiro das Chagas, you will find the fountain with emblems of the Passion attributed to André Soares, marking the end of this first part of the route. It is followed by the Staircase of the Five Senses, where each fountain corresponds to an easily identifiable meaning, and the Staircase of Virtues (with representations of Faith, Hope, and Charity), the latter attributed to Carlos Amarante, and executed during the time of Archbishop D. Gaspar de Bragança, responsible for the expansion of the sanctuary. The parallelism with the Way of Calvary and the catechetical function of Bom Jesus is well expressed along the zigzagging path leading to the church, where all artistic manifestations converge in the same direction, as José Fernandes Pereira states: on the Staircase of the Five Senses, the message focuses on the illusory and sinful nature of sensory knowledge. However, water and sacred images function as possibilities of purification, culminating in the Staircase of Virtues, where the pilgrim comes into contact with theological truths, then finding themselves capable of entering the culmination of the entire journey: the church, the house of God, into which only the pure should enter. The temple was previously located at the end of the Staircase of the Five Senses, and its design is attributed to Manuel Pinto Vilalobos (c. 1725). It was destroyed to make way for the current one, built by Carlos Amarante, in a language that denotes an openness to Neoclassicism, and the resulting decorative refinement, in a composition where the central body, crowned by a triangular pediment, and flanked by two towers, stands out.

However, despite the classical reference, Amarante denotes the influence of the architecture of Braga by André Soares, very present in the effective animation of the facade. The interior is quite sober, with four side chapels, the main altar being the Calvary by the sculptor from Braga, José Monteiro da Rocha, and the paintings by Pedro Alexandrino.