The Clérigos Church is the body attached to the famous tower, and it deserves more than a passing glance on the way to the stairs. Designed by Nicolau Nasoni in the 1730s and 40s, it was Porto's first Baroque church built on an oval plan — an unusual choice that gives the nave a theatrical quality, as if the architecture itself is performing.
Nasoni was a painter before he was an architect, and the church ceiling is his masterpiece — a trompe-l'oeil painting that creates the illusion of a dome where none exists. The flat ceiling appears to curve upward into a heavenly scene of saints and angels, and the effect is so convincing that visitors regularly look up and stumble. The altar is equally theatrical — a carved and gilded retable that climbs the full height of the apse, dripping with gold in the Portuguese style that treats restraint as a character flaw.
The church was built for the Brotherhood of the Clérigos — a fraternity of poor clergymen — and the tension between their vow of humility and the building's extravagant decoration is one of those contradictions that makes Baroque Catholicism simultaneously infuriating and magnificent. The church is free to enter (the tower costs a few euros), and attending a concert here — the acoustics are superb — is one of Porto's great evening experiences.
Verified Facts
The church was designed by Nicolau Nasoni in the 1730s-40s
It was Porto's first Baroque church built on an oval plan
The ceiling features a trompe-l'oeil painting creating the illusion of a dome
The church was built for a brotherhood of poor clergymen
Get walking directions
Rua de São Filipe de Nery, Porto
