Sunny. Seventy degrees. Yawn.
Bus to São Bento station. Then the train to Braga. Twenty-five stops later, we’re there. The basic idea was to go north and stop in some picturesque town before we got to Spain. Braga, whose citizens are reputed to be the happiest in Portugal, seemed a good pick. Besides a brooding medieval cathedral standing like a stony fortress in the center of this mountain valley town, Braga is a noted destination for Catholic pilgrims since it’s at the base of the hill dominated by Dom Jesus do Monte.
Dom Jesus do Monte is famous for the stairway leading up to the church.
The steps zigzag behind those white walls. Ten to the right, then ten the left (or vice versa) reaching a landing where there’s a fountain in the upper wall depicting one of the senses. My favorite was the fountain of Sight.
On the way up the stairs, on different landings, are stone kiosk-like chapels with painted terra cotta figures inside sculpted to portray episodes leading up to the Crucifixion.
Good Friday was yesterday and here we are stepping from chapel to chapel, clomping down the stairs where pilgrims are said to crawl, to peer into 18th Century Passion of Christ dioramas. We didn’t plan this. Ella just said, “The weather looks good on Saturday, let’s give Porto a rest and go to Braga.” Out of all the weekends in the year, on a random jaunt, we just happen to visit what amounts to a Catholic theme park devoted to Easter.
I expected the church at the top of this Baroque set of ornamental stairs to have an altar piece that would make Bernini weep. Instead, if tears were ever shed over what we saw, they must have been tears of laughter. I’ve been to Mexico City, I’ve seen my share of Catholic kitsch, but this altar design was right out of the 1953 movie, “The Robe” starring Richard Burton and Victor Mature.
I had to get out of the church before the score from the film started playing in my head.