Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Consolação e Santos Passos

About

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, is an 18th-century Portuguese baroque Catholic church located at the Campo da Feira in Guimarães, Portugal. Constructed to replace the dilapidated chapel which had previously occupied the same site, the Santos Passos Church and its five oratories, which depict the Passion of Jesus, were designated a protected landmark by the Portuguese government in 1993. It also falls within the Historic Centre of Guimarães, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001. The church plays a significant role in many of the festivities and religious celebrations of Guimarães.

The church has a longitudinal floor plan comprising a single nave with concave angles, a rectangular chancel and is set in a northeast–southeast direction. The church features distinct roof styles for its various sections. The nave and chancel are topped with gable roofs, which provide a traditional peaked appearance, while the side chapel and sacristy are covered with hipped roofs.

Adding to the body of the church, a side chapel and sacristy are located to the southwest. Facing northeast, the undulating main façade is convex and covered in blue and white azulejos. According to the author Jorge Henrique Pais da Silva, the curves do not impact the internal spatiality of the church, since the division between the vestibule and the nave is very sharp. Its façade also contains 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 each side.

On a slightly recessed level, there are two slender bell towers topped by pyramidal corbels. The church stands on a terrace, served by a staircase with several flights and a balustrade with pinnacles, flanked by pedestals with statues.

Inside, 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 altarpiece and the dais were made by the master carver José António da Cunha. The two sculptures flanking the main staircase represent James the Great and Saint Bartholomew.

The church is located 571 metres (1,873 ft) above sea level.

The building was described by architectural specialist Joaquim Jaime Ferreira-Alves as being a church with "a nave with concave curves at the corners and a slight convex curve on the façade" with "serious, simple and plain ornaments ".

In front of the church are three rectangular gardens filled with flowers and bushes that are changed periodically to match the current season. These gardens are surrounded by Portuguese pavement and subsequently by roads. Forty days before Easter, purple banners are put in the border of the gardens to mark Lent. Once Easter is over, they are removed.

The garden farthest from the church, formerly a roundabout, features a stone fountain at its front. The garden closest to the church included four granite statues, one at each corner, with the two statues positioned farthest from the church having small fountains built into their pedestals.

These statues were previously located next to the church, next to the staircase leading up to it. They represented the four saints who wrote the epistles, St. Paul, St. Peter, St. James and St. Jude. On 18 October 2025 a new statue depicting St. Thomas was inaugurated, with five more planned to be added.

The gardens, officially called Jardins do Largo da República do Brasil, received the national award for good practices in local administration in 2008.

The Oratories, also known as Passos, are small temples that form a Way of the Cross, depicting the steps of the Passion of Jesus. Within these structures, 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. Originally, there was a total of seven different oratories; however, due to the growth of the city, some had to be moved or outright destroyed. Five Oratories remain standing: two at the Campo da Feira, one at the Misericórdia Square, one on Santa Maria Street and one at the Carmo Square.

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. 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. The sacristy is clad in oilcloth and its ceiling is finished in stucco. The celling also has a wooden structure covered in clay tiles. The main staircase and balustrade are made of granite, and so are the four statues on top of the tympanum.

The church has a longitudinal floor plan comprising a single nave with concave angles, a rectangular chancel and is set in a northeast–southeast direction. The church features distinct roof styles for its various sections. The nave and chancel are topped with gable roofs, which provide a traditional peaked appearance, while the side chapel and sacristy are covered with hipped roofs.

Adding to the body of the church, a side chapel and sacristy are located to the southwest. Facing northeast, the undulating main façade is convex and covered in blue and white azulejos. According to the author Jorge Henrique Pais da Silva, the curves do not impact the internal spatiality of the church, since the division between the vestibule and the nave is very sharp. Its façade also contains 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 each side.

On a slightly recessed level, there are two slender bell towers topped by pyramidal corbels. The church stands on a terrace, served by a staircase with several flights and a balustrade with pinnacles, flanked by pedestals with statues.

Inside, 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 altarpiece and the dais were made by the master carver José António da Cunha. The two sculptures flanking the main staircase represent James the Great and Saint Bartholomew.

The church is located 571 metres (1,873 ft) above sea level.

The building was described by architectural specialist Joaquim Jaime Ferreira-Alves as being a church with "a nave with concave curves at the corners and a slight convex curve on the façade" with "serious, simple and plain ornaments ".

In front of the church are three rectangular gardens filled with flowers and bushes that are changed periodically to match the current season. These gardens are surrounded by Portuguese pavement and subsequently by roads. Forty days before Easter, purple banners are put in the border of the gardens to mark Lent. Once Easter is over, they are removed.