Santos Passos Church
Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Consolação e dos Santos Passos
Igreja de São Guálter (Saint Guálter Church)
Igreja dos Santos Passos (Church of the Holy Steps)
The Santos Passos Church in 2012
41°26′27″N 8°17′23″W / 41.44096°N 8.28980°W / 41.44096; -8.28980
Location	HCG, Guimarães
Country	Portugal
Denomination	Catholic
History
Status	Protected (Public Interest Building)[1]
Architecture
Architect(s)	André Soares (Church) Pedro Ferreira (Bell towers)
Style	Portuguese baroque
Years built	1594 – Original chapel 1767-1785 – Current church 1789-1798 – Apse 1861 – Lateral expansions 1862-1875 – Bell towers
Specifications
Number of towers	2

The Santos Passos Church (Portuguese: Igreja dos Santos Passos), officially called Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Consolação e dos Santos Passos and sometimes referred to as Igreja de São Gualter or even Church of the Holy Steps, is a 18th century Portuguese baroque church located at the Campo da Feira in Guimarães, Portugal.

Description

Structure

The church is located 571 metres (1,873 ft) above sea level^[2] and has a longitudinal floor plan comprising a single nave and rectangular chancel and is set in a NE - SE direction. The volumes are articulated according to differentiated roofs, with gable roofs (nave and chancel) and hipped roofs (chapel and sacristy).^[3]

Adding to the body of the church, a side chapel and sacristy are located to the SO. The main façade, facing NE, is convex and covered in blue and white azulejos. It has a portal, a bay window and two narrow windows crowned by a tympanum with a clock, topped by a cross and flanked by two statues. On a slightly recessed level, there are two slender bell towers topped by pyramidal corbels. It stands on a terrace, served by a staircase with several flights and a balustrade with pinnacles, flanked by pedestals with statues.^[3]

The church is filled with fourteen mother-of-pearl framed paintings depicting the Way of the Cross in polychrome 18th century French engravings. There is also a processional flag painted by the Swiss artist Auguste Roquemont [pt]. The two sculptures flanking the main staircase represent James the Great and Saint Bartholomew.^[3]

Oratories

The Oratories, also known as Passos, are small chapels that form a Way of the Cross, depicting the steps of the Passion of Jesus Christ. Within these chapels, life-size figures sculpted from polychrome wood vividly portray scenes from the Passion. All of the Oratories are constructed using granite and are situated throughout the Historic Centre of Guimarães as part of the Santos Passos Church complex. Each oratory is equipped with large wooden exterior shutters allowing them to be securely closed when necessary, as well as a small sign with info about the respective oratory.^[3]

Materials

The church's exterior walls are constructed from granite masonry and coated with fine sand on both the exterior and interior surfaces. Similarly, the ceilings in the nave and chancel are also plastered.^[3]

The main façade is adorned with azulejos, while the bell towers are constructed using exposed granite masonry. Tiled paneling decorates the nave, and both the floor of the nave and the chancel are covered in ceramic mosaic with granite accents.^[3]

The sacristy is clad in oilcloth and its ceiling is finished in stucco. The celling also has a wooden structure covered in clay tiles.^[3]

The main staircase and balustrade are made of granite, and the statues on top of the tympanum are also made of granite.^[3]

History

Predecessors

The site on which the Santos Passos Church now stands, was originally occupied by a hermitage church built in March 1576^[2] and later by a chapel built in 1594 by order of Duarte Sodré.^[4]

By the early 1700s, the chapel was ruined and a safety hazard.^[4] The Irmandade dos Santos Passos, a fraternal organization founded in 1594^[5][6] and owner of the chapel, ordered the construction of a “bigger and richer building” on top of the decayed structure.^[4]

Construction

Body and apse

The construction of the new church took longer than expected and in 1767, Galician Pedro Lourenço bought the construction works at an auction.^[4] In 1769 a floor plan had to be commissioned from the Braga architect André Soares. The Santos Passos Church was his last work, as he died that same year.^[7]

On 18 October 1785 the body of the church was finished and it was blessed that same year. Construction of the apse only started in 1789.^[4] The Toural section of the Medieval Walls of Guimarães was demolished in 1789,^[8][9] enabling the reuse of its stones in the construction of the apse. The apse's construction concluded nine years later, in 1798.^[4]

The master stonemasons Vicente José Carvalho^[10] and Diogo Soares contributed in the church’s construction, with Soares being in charge of making the construction's budget^[11][12] and Carvalho getting control of the whole project in 10 April 1773.^[10][13][14]

Preservation Status

The Santos Passos Church is located on the Historic Centre of Guimarães, a World Heritage Site of UNESCO since 2001.^[15]

It was declared a Public Interest Building along with its oratories via the decree n°4593, D.R. 280 of 30 November 1993.^[16]

Procession of the Lord of the Holy Steps

The Procession of the Lord of the Holy Steps (Processão do Senhor dos Santos Passos) is a nacional event but it is organised in Guimarães by the Irmandade dos Santos Passos and starts at the Santos Passos Church, runs through the Historic Center of Guimarães (namely the São Dâmaso Boulevard and the Toural, then up to Misericórdia Square) and then returns at the end back to the Santos Passos Church.^[17]

It usually takes place every year in March or April, regardless of the weather.^[18]

See also

• Guimarães
• Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Oliveira
• List of buildings in Guimarães
• Religion in Portugal

References

Bibliography

• Smith, Robert C. (1968). "A Casa da Câmara de Braga (1753-1756)", Bracara Augusta (in Portuguese). Vol. XXII. Braga. pp. 283–320.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Smith, Robert C. (1973). André Soares, arquitecto do Minho [André Soares, architect of the Minho Region] (in Portuguese). Lisbon.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Caldas, António José Ferreira (1996). Guimarães apontamentos para a sua história (in Portuguese). Guimarães.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Gandra, Manuel J. (1973). "Guimarães", Dicionário da Arte Barroca em Portugal ["Guimarães", Dictionary of Baroque art in Portugal] (in Portuguese). Lisbon.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Oliveira, Eduardo Pires de (2003). Os alvores do rococó em Guimarães e outros estudos sobre o barroco e o rococó do Minho (in Portuguese). Braga: APPACDM Distrital de Braga. pp. 15–61.
• Pina, Luiz de (1933). O Castelo de Guimarães [The Castle of Guimarães] (in Portuguese). Vila Nova de Gaia: Edições Pátria.