Christian worship place sacred places in Portugal

Basilica da Estrela

Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

Queen Maria I vowed in 1760 to build a church if granted a son to secure the throne....

Braga Cathedral

Braga, Braga, Portugal

Consecrated in 1089, Braga Cathedral is Portugal's oldest cathedral and the seat of the country's Archbishop-Primate....

Capela das Almas

Viana do Castelo, Viana do Castelo, Portugal

Before Viana do Castelo had a cathedral, it had this modest riverside chapel — its first mother church, built on Romanesque foundations that excavation suggests may reach...

Capela de São Roque e São Tiago Maior

Póvoa de Varzim, Porto, Portugal

Built in 1582 as a plea for protection against plague, this small chapel on Póvoa de Varzim's main square changed character when a statue of Saint James — found on the...

Chapel of the Apparitions (Our Lady of Fátima)

Part of Fatima

Fátima, Santarém, Portugal

The Chapel of the Apparitions stands at the precise location where the Virgin Mary appeared to three Portuguese shepherd children in 1917....

Church of Bom Jesus da Cruz

Barcelos, Braga, Portugal

In December 1504, a black cross reportedly appeared in the earth of Barcelos's fairground, spreading until it formed a shape that, according to local memory, no shovel...

Church of Nossa Senhora da Agonia

Viana do Castelo, Viana do Castelo, Portugal

Built to house an image installed in 1674, the Church of Nossa Senhora da Agonia grew from a small chapel dedicated to fishermen's fear of shipwreck into the anchor of one...

Church of Saint Anthony of Lisbon

Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

Beside Lisbon's cathedral, this Baroque-Rococo church stands where centuries of local and ecclesiastical tradition place the 1195 birth of Fernando de Bulhões — later...

Church of Santa Maria de Marvila

Santarém, Santarém, Portugal

Behind a restrained Manueline doorway in Santarém's old town, Santa Maria de Marvila hides an interior almost entirely resurfaced in seventeenth-century azulejo tile — a...

Church of Santa Maria do Olival

Tomar, Santarém, Portugal

Founded by Gualdim Pais, the Templar master who established Tomar itself, Santa Maria do Olival served as the Order's spiritual seat and burial pantheon in Portugal....

Church of Santa Maria Madalena da Falperra

Braga, Braga, Portugal

On a ridge above Braga, a granite Baroque facade rises where a medieval chapel once stood — rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake into one of André Soares's most celebrated...

Church of São Bento da Vitória

Porto, Porto, Portugal

Built from 1604 by the Portuguese Benedictine Congregation on the site of Porto's former Jewish quarter, São Bento da Vitória remains a consecrated church known for its...

Church of São João Baptista, Tomar

Tomar, Santarém, Portugal

Facing the statue of the Templar founder of Tomar across the Praça da República, the Church of São João Baptista has served as the town's Igreja Matriz since the fifteenth...

Church of São Pedro de Rates

Póvoa de Varzim, Porto, Portugal

São Pedro de Rates marks the point where the Coastal and Central routes of the Camino Português converge before continuing toward Barcelos and Santiago de Compostela....

Church of São Roque

Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

Founded in 1506 as a plague-relief shrine and built from 1553 as the first Jesuit church in the Portuguese world, São Roque hides its Baroque wealth behind a deliberately...

Church of the Holy Miracle of Santarém

Santarém, Santarém, Portugal

In the historic center of Santarém, a small Gothic-to-Renaissance church — now the Santuário do Santíssimo Milagre, formerly the parish church of Santo Estêvão — houses a...

Coimbra New Cathedral

Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

Built in the late 16th and 17th centuries as the church of a Jesuit college training missionaries for Portugal's colonial territories, this building became the seat of the...

Coimbra Old Cathedral

Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

The Sé Velha is the only Portuguese Romanesque cathedral from the Reconquista era to survive largely intact....

Évora Cathedral

Évora, Évora, Portugal

A granite fortress-church raised after the 1166 reconquest of Évora, the Sé has served as the seat of its archdiocese for more than eight centuries....

Faro Cathedral

Faro, Faro, Portugal

Faro Cathedral stands on ground used for worship across more than two millennia — a Roman temple, an early Christian basilica, a mosque during Moorish rule, and since the...

Guarda Cathedral

Guarda, Guarda, Portugal

Guarda Cathedral rose over roughly a century and a half, beginning in 1390, on the site of the diocesan seat transferred here in 1199 when King Sancho I founded Guarda as...

Igreja de Santiago de Palmela

Palmela, Setúbal, Portugal

Built from 1443 as the conventual church and headquarters of the Order of Santiago de Espada inside Palmela Castle, this austere late-Gothic building served the Portuguese...

Igreja de São Vicente de Fora

Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

Founded around 1147 on the ground where crusader forces camped during the siege that took Lisbon from Moorish rule, São Vicente de Fora holds the relics of the city's...

Igreja Matriz de Caminha

Caminha, Viana do Castelo, Portugal

Built between 1488 and 1556 behind Caminha's medieval walls, this granite parish church combines a fortress-like Gothic exterior with an intricately carved Mudéjar ceiling...

Lamego Cathedral

Lamego, Viseu, Portugal

Lamego Cathedral layers a Romanesque south tower, a Manueline triple-portico front, a 1524 Mannerist cloister, and an eighteenth-century Baroque interior painted by...

Lisbon Cathedral

Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

Since 1147, this fortress-faced cathedral above the Tagus has held the daily rhythm of Mass, sacrament, and civic devotion as the seat of the Patriarchate of Lisbon....

Matriz Church of Ponte de Lima

Ponte de Lima, Viana do Castelo, Portugal

Ponte de Lima's matriz church stands on the site of a 12th-13th century Romanesque predecessor that, by the town's own 1444 testimony, had grown too small for its...

National Pantheon, Church of Santa Engrácia

Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

Begun in 1681 to house the relics of a virgin martyr, the Church of Santa Engrácia took nearly three centuries to complete — so long that Lisbon still calls any endless...

Porto Cathedral

Porto, Porto, Portugal

The Sé do Porto has held the seat of the Bishop of Porto for nine centuries, its thick Romanesque walls and twin towers built as much for defense as for devotion....

Viseu Cathedral

Viseu, Viseu, Portugal

Viseu Cathedral rises on the site of an Early Christian basilica destroyed under Moorish rule and rebuilt after the 1058 reconquest....