SANTUÁRIO DO BOM JESUS DE MATOSINHOS

The sanctuary consists of a church, a terraced staircase decorated with soapstone sculptures of the Old Testament prophets and six chapels. The sanctuary has been a World Heritage Site since 1985. The superb ensemble (church and chapels) was created by the artists who are at the origin of the splendor of the baroque art of Mineiro: Aleijadinho and Ataide.

The chapels of the Passion of Christ), which relate the events that accompanied the death of Jesus of Nazareth, are spectacular. The Aleijadinho added some details voluntarily anachronistic to mock the Portuguese. The boots of the Romans are in fact Portuguese boots, as if to show the barbaric character of the presence of the soldiers and officials of the Portuguese Empire. These Luso-Romans sometimes have two left feet... According to some historians, the martyrdom of Christ can be seen as an allegory of the struggle of the "inconfidents" against the Portuguese Crown. The hero Joaquim José da Silva Xavier "Tiradentes" is said to be the model of the little cripple.

The visit starts at the bottom of the hill, at the first chapel, which houses cedar wood statues. This is the well-known scene: Judas, with a bag of gold in his hand, looks down as it is announced that there is a traitor in the room. Further up, the second scene is that of the Garden of Olives, with St Peter in a sombre mood. The third chapel shows the arrest of Jesus: Malchus has his ear cut off. The fourth represents the scourging and the crowning with thorns; the fifth, the Way of the Cross, the sixth, the crucifixion. The soldiers playing dice with his cloak, others nailing Christ, and the two thieves can be seen.

Finally, on the terrace of the church stand the twelve statues of the prophets, in soapstone. Some see this as the zenith of Aleijadinho art. Among them, Daniel, who speaks to his lion; Ezekiel, who holds the wrath of God on his arm; Isaiah the bearded one; Jonah, who returns from a stay in the belly of the whale. One can admire the realism of some of the works and the little "touch" of the Aleijadinho: the lion was sculpted after the shape of a cat, since the Aleijadinho had never seen lions.

The Holy Week processions are particularly spectacular. In the second week of September, more than 500,000 pilgrims attend the Jubilee of Bom Jesus de Matosinhos.