Day 29 to 39 – Day Trip to Braga, Portugal on Day 37

07-25-2109 – We got up very early this morning … made coffee (needed it) …to hustle over the Luis I Bridge to Porto in order to catch the first train north to Braga.  I bought some things last night for our breakfast on the train, and for a picnic lunch later if the weather holds out.  Rain is in the forecast for later so we had our fingers crossed for good weather, but off we go in any case.

We were able to get our tickets from a nice man at the window at the train station and get on the train to Braga.  The train wasn’t full so we picked two seats by the windows facing each other, but at the last minute, a gaggle of kids on a school field trip hopped on the train and scrambled to find seats. Two little boys with backpacks on ended up sitting next to us. After about 15 minutes, I pulled out our breakfast of more traditional Portuguese pastries…YUM. We felt kind of bad because the little boys definitely noticed and were glancing out of the side of their eyes at the pasties as we ate.

One pastry was a traditional flaky pastry with a hard-cinnamon sugary top on it. The other was an egg custard filled pastry… we are gonna turn into bread.  So good.  How are these people not 300 lbs?  Good thing we are constantly walking and there are hills everywhere.  Wayne is actually losing a lot of weight and gaining some muscle in his legs, which is good except his pants are way too big and his belt needs another hole.  I have lost a little weight, but I am getting stronger and a tad bit toned.

The conductor came by and he was very nice, but told us we forgot to validate our tickets at the train station.  He schooled us on how to do that at the scanners in the station no more than 15 minutes before boarding the train.  I am so glad he spoke English.  We forgot about the validation thing about European trains…Caitlin has been our train expert in the past when traveling by train in Europe…we miss her expertise in that regard. <3

We got to Braga and were both so tired. As we entered Old Town Braga through the Arco da Porta Nova, which is a landmark stone archway and one of the old gates to the city, we saw a small beautiful bakery and I went in to ask if they have coffee “to take away” and they did!  It was so funny to see the tiny to-go cups that she gave me… but the espresso was nice and strong and just what we needed again because we were going to have a whirlwind tour of Braga.

Our first stop was the Sé de Braga, which is the cathedral.  It was blessed on August 28th, 1089 with later additions through 13th century with a mix of styles, including a late Gothic entrance gallery. It is the oldest cathedral in Portugal, even older than Portugal itself, and one of the oldest on the Iberian Peninsula.  It is also one of the most important cathedrals as it is the seat of the Archdiocese of Braga and of the Archbishop of Portugal.  We learned that here in Portugal there is a saying that Portuguese people use “older than the Braga Cathedral”. The Braga Diocese dates back to 3^rd century AD.

We visited the cathedral museum via a guided tour to visit other parts of the cathedral that are not open unless you pay for the guided tour. In this case, though, we were glad to pay the price as this was some serious art and history. The magnificent Coro Alto (High Choir) is beautifully decorated with a painted ceiling and sculptured gilt wood choir stalls from 1737.  In front of the high choir there are two gilt wood organs, carved in the 1730’s, heavily decorated with baroque and fantastic motifs. These are among the most impressive gilt wood works in Portugal.  There are enough seats for all of the priests in Braga Province (40) and each has a beautiful blue tile with his name on the back of his seat in the choir.

Apparently not many other people were paying for the full tour because as we moved on to the surrounding chapels, we were pulled away from the crowd and had our own personal guide. The guide carried a iron ring with huge skeleton keys that let us in the original ancient, hand hewn iron gates still protecting these chapels. Its was nice that no one else was in these areas so it was peacefully quiet and we could spend as much time as we wanted just contemplating the history of what we were seeing.

Our guide next took us to the Capela dos Reis (King’s Chapel) which was built by Archbishop D. Gonçalo Pereira between 1236-1248 to house the remains of the parents of Portugal’s first King, Afonso Henriques.  This chapel contains their stone tombs which were substituted in the early 16th century by new ones, with carved recumbent figures… However, what strikes you first as enter is a stone casket with glass top in the center of the chapel containing the mummified remains of the archbishop. Ya….we could have used a little notice on that one. The archibishop was placed in the chapel after his death by the clergy as an honor for all the work he had done for the parish during his life.

Next was the Chapel of Saint Peter of Rates who is traditionally considered to be the first bishop of Braga between the years 45 and 60. Tradition says he has been ordered to preach the Christian faith by Saint James the Great (Disciple of Jesus), and that Peter of Rates was martyred while attempting to make converts to the Christian faith in northern Portugal.  Centuries later, around the 9th century, the discovery of Peter’s body was attributed to Saint Felix the Hermit, a fisherman of Villa Mendo.  Felix had left home and settled in the biggest hill of the area, which is today known as São Félix Hill. Regularly, Saint Félix observed a light in the darkness of the night from the hill.  One day, curious about the light’s origins, Felix came upon the body of Saint Peter of Rates.  On that spot, the Romanesque Monastery of Rates was built, and the relics kept there until 1552; in that year the body was transferred to Braga Cathedral, where it is still kept above the altar of this chapel.  The beautifully decorated walls of this chapel, with traditional blue-white tiles that tell the life of the saint were, added in the 18th century by António de Oliveira Bernardes, one of the main -Portuguese tile painters of the time.

The tour moved on to the 14th century Capela da Glória (Glory Chapel). On  November 17^th, 1331, Pope John XXII  granted Archbishop Goncarla Pereira authorization to spend 6000 florins of gold (1 Florin contains 3.5 grams of pure gold so about $945,000 today) to build the chapel he was planning. The walls are painted with Moorish-style geometric designs and contain the magnificent Renaissance tomb of the Archbishop.  He not only commissioned this magnificent chapel and tomb, but also personally designed an elaborate, carved stone casket for himself as his final resting place.  He must have thought highly of himself to spend the church’s money to build a chapel, tomb and casket all dedicated to HIMSELF. 

Finally, we saw the museum and cloisters, which were rebuilt in the 19th century and are beautiful but look like many of the other cloisters we have seen. However, one of the differences with this one was the collection of ancient Roman artifacts placed everywhere around the walkways ranging from broken marble columns, stone pots, a huge stone gear, tombstones, and other decorative items found during the excavation of the chapel and cloister grounds when they were constructed. The Cathedral Museum keeps many interesting religious items, including the magnificent chalice of Archbishop Diogo de Sousa (early 16th century), the chalice of Saint Gerard (10th century) and an Arab ivory box (11th century)

The garden of Santa Barbara is a municipal park on the eastern side of the Archbishop’s Palace.  It is a beautiful park which consists of geometric designs carved from flowerbeds of boxwood and decorated with cedar topiaries and many colorful flowers.  On the northern patio of the Palace, alongside the garden, is a manicured area with diverse architectural elements; specifically, the remains of cornices, statues and a coat-of-arms in rock. Dividing the space between the palace and the garden are the broken ruins of an arcade, that pertained to the palace during medieval times (only 4 arches remain). Located in the middle of the garden is a statue of St. Barbara on a fountain, which represents the patron saint of the garden.  There was a woman working in the garden weeding, pulling dead leaves and replacing the bad plants.  It was so well maintained.

The Palace of Raio is a baroque-era residence and is an example of the late Baroque, early Rococo style of decoration.  It was built for a knight of the Order of Christ, who was a rich merchant, in 1754-1755. It was built using natural elements in the decorative sculptures that permeate the design including the shells, jars, wreaths, garlands, and beautiful blue tilework.  We were not able to go inside, but the outside is beautiful as you can see.

Walking around Old Town Braga is a treat to the eyes. There are churches, plazas, chapels and gardens everywhere.  One plaza itself had 4 churches on it and at least 1 other.  Other sites we saw were the Congregados Basilica, is an 18th-century church in the Baroque style.  It is flanked on the top by two bell towers, one of which was finished in the 1960s. It is a very beautiful, clean and well maintained city.  There is much pride shown it the city and how well it is kept.  It really is a jewel. 

There are many small chapels tucked into corners on little side cobbled streets. They we all in use as many people were stopping in quickly to pray.  We stopped in one tucked in chapel called  St. Bentinho, lit a candle for 0.40 cents and prayed.  It was supposedly the chapel for healing, so I made Wayne go inside…

It was a whirlwind city tour with misty weather and rain obviously coming…After we saw most of the Braga sites that we wanted to see, we caught a city bus to the Bom Jesus – I love saying Bom Jesus… Jesus is the Bomb you know….It started raining very hard on the way there.  I am so happy that Wayne reminded me to bring my rain jacket because when we arrived it was dumping and we quickly donned our jackets.

The Bom Jesus do Monte (Good Jesus on the Mount) is an important pilgrimage site and is the city’s number one tourist destination. It is a beautiful church and sanctuary built on a hilltop surrounded by chapels, fountains, hotels and parks.  You can reach the top of the hill by either the famous Stairway to Heaven, which is 517 steps up and signifies the ascension, or via the funicular.  Due to the rain we chose the funicular to the top with the hopes that the weather would clear when we decided to come down the stairs.

The Bom Jesus do Monte Funicular was built from 1880 to 1882.  It was the first of its kind built on the Iberian Peninsula and the oldest still in use today.  Prior to the funicular, horses were used to pull a horsecar of visitors to the top of the hill.  On busy days, oxen were used.  The funicular parallels the staircase and travels through lush vegetation.  The funicular’s route crosses 899 ft along the flank of the hill, with an 42º incline, across a rise of 381 ft.  It functions on two parallel standard tracks, each with its own tram. The trams are connected along a 23 ft long, 6.6 ft wide steel cable, over a 15 ft wheelbase. The suspension system is made of four gears without dampers and hinged spiral-spring stop brakes. Each wooden cabin has been beautifully restored and supports a capacity of 30 seated passengers, eight standing and conductor.

Each cabin includes two water tanks, with the largest tank holding 1546 gallons, that function as a counterweight and support refrigeration circuit for the brakes. The small tank has a capacity for 57 gallons that support the rear brakes. Both cabins run in opposite directions, arriving at their opposite stops simultaneously.  It is the oldest funicular in the world moved by Water Counterbalancing.  This works by loading water into the car at the top of the hill, weighing it down so it descends to the bottom, at the same time drawing the lighter, drained car up the hill, where the process starts all over again: the trip takes between 2.4 and 4 minutes.

Many hilltops in Portugal and other parts of Europe have been sites of religious devotion since antiquity, the first indication of a chapel on the hill dates from 1373. The chapel – dedicated to the Holy Cross – was rebuilt in the 15th and 16th centuries. In 1629. a pilgrimage church was built on the site dedicated to the Bom Jesus.  Pilgrims were encouraged to make the ascent to the top of the hill on their knees, thus experiencing the pain of Christ on his way to his death.

Construction on another church started in 1722. It was built in the Baroque style. The first stairway segment contains small chapels dedicated to the Stations of the Cross. Each chapel is decorated with terra cotta sculptures depicting the Passion of Christ. (some of them were being refurbished.) The next segment of stairways has a zigzag shape and is dedicated to the Five Senses. Each sense (Sight, Smell, Hearing, Touch, Taste) is represented by a different fountain.

Around 1781, the archbishop decided to complete the ensemble by adding a third segment of stairways and a new church. The old church was demolished (!) and a new one was built following a Neoclassic design. The third stairway segment also follows a zigzag pattern and is dedicated to the Three Theological Virtues: Faith, Hope and Charity, each with its own fountain. This new church, began in 1784, had its interior decorated in the beginning of the 19th century and was consecrated in 1834.  Inside the twin-towered church, small chapels line the sanctuary and represent the stations of the cross. The stations of the cross culminate on the altar in the Crucifixion, the Three Marys and Pontius Pilate’s soldiers looking on.  We found this to be unique and special and had not seen this on an altar before.

There are usually superb views from this site on the top of the hill, but it was pouring rain for us, so we could see no views.  In the 19th century, the area around the church and stairway was expropriated and turned into a park.  In July of this year (just a couple weeks before we visited) Bom Jesus was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

When we were finished, while descending down the stairs in the pouring rain, a thought occurred to me…. We went down the staircase… not up… we did not ascend… does that mean we are going to hell? HMMMM.

We got to bottom of staircase and were both hungry.  I remember seeing a little store as we were coming up on the bus, so even though it was raining, we walked a bit down the road and found a little snack bar stand in a picnic area/parking area.  We went and sat at their tables in the rain, ordered a beer and ate the packed lunch that I had prepared. It was a great lunch and was even nice to sit in the rain.  After lunch, we walked back to the bus stop to the Bom Jesus bus stop for the return bus to Old Town.

We returned to the train station in Braga for our return to Porto.  This time we validated our ticket. It was work time, so Wayne dragged out his computer and fired up his internet. He worked on the train (while I snoozed) on the ride back.

We went back to our apartment and I made us a nice dinner of pork cutlets, gazpacho (which Wayne hated) red-bean-garlic-onion-cheesy rice and bread.  Yes, I made up the rice dish trying to clear out leftovers.  It was pretty tasty though!

It was a great day!

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