Igreja de São Francisco

The Church of São Francisco is Gothic on the outside and absolute madness on the inside. Behind a relatively austere 14th-century stone façade lies an interior so completely covered in gilded woodcarving that it's estimated to contain over 300 kilograms of gold dust. Every surface — walls, columns, ceiling, altarpieces — is layered in intricate Baroque talha dourada (gilded woodwork) that makes the entire interior shimmer like the inside of a jewellery box.

The centrepiece is the Tree of Jesse — a carved and gilded family tree of Christ that climbs an entire wall in a tangle of branches, figures, and faces that took unknown craftsmen years to complete. It's considered one of the finest examples of Baroque woodcarving in Europe, and standing in front of it you can understand how the sheer accumulation of gold drove the church authorities to eventually ban further gilding, fearing it had become more about wealth than worship.

Beneath the church are the catacombs — an ossuary where the bones of former parishioners are visible through glass panels in the floor. The contrast between the golden excess upstairs and the skeletal minimalism below is Porto at its most dramatic. The church is no longer used for regular worship — it functions as a museum — which means you can take your time absorbing the details without the guilt of gawking during a service.