Holy week in Braga, “Rome of Portugal”

It’s almost mid-April and the holy week, the week before Easter, is here. There is no better place in Portugal to spend (some of) the holy week than in Braga. Braga is the oldest city in Portugal and lies a little more North than Porto, and was founded by the Romans in the year 16 BC. It is very religious and for that reason if also known as the “Rome of Portugal”. It by far does not attract the number of visitors like Porto does, but I honestly enjoyed Braga more than Porto because it wasn’t so touristy and more authentic. It does share the same beauty as Porto: the decorated facades, the many cathedrals, the cobbled narrow streets… Tim can account for the many (many) times I have said “Oh, I could live here!” during this trip but I think Braga could actually be a place where I could settle for a while. But don’t worry, dear family, we do intend to come back to Netherlands!

Adding to the charm of this town we find a little bookshop that hides a secret garden at the back, serving tea and cake that we can not resist to enjoy in the sun now that the rain is gone. In the evening (after a lot of walking and sightseeing done) we find a cute vegetarian restaurant that serves a free-flow buffet of deliciousness. After dinner, the day isn’t over yet! As we have waited for it to be 21:30, when the very first procession for the holy week in Braga takes place. It is the evening before Palm Sunday and this procession is therefor short but sweet. As a statue of Jesus is walked through the streets we follow the procession from one church to another, listening to the people sing religious songs in Portuguese. It’s a special experience. (video attached)

We continue our holy week activities the next day when we visit the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte: a cathedral that’s located on top of a hill. To reach it, we climb 577 steps. It turns out to be a very enjoyable 577 steps as the staircase up is all in baroque style and again beautifully decorated all the way up. We find chapels that each tell a part of the story of Jesus’ sacrifice as well as statues and fountains built as part of the stairs. Finally we reach the top and conclude that the cathedral itself is also worth the climb, especially now that it’s decorated with palm branches for the holy week. Fun fact: while 577 steps may seem like a climb for anyone, some pilgrims apparently walk the steps on their knees! I shared with Tim that walking the steps on their knees seems like a undoable task, imagining someone going up keeping their body up straight and climbing on their knees only. I even went as far trying to demonstrate how they may have done it as I couldn’t quite grasp how this would be physically done. Of course, Tim burst out laughing, helping me to the brilliant insight that they would probably do it on both hands AND knees. That makes much more sense… (still tiring, I reckon!).

After the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus Do Monte we climb the hills some more to arrive at yet another beautiful church and view. At this location we take a local bus back to town. At 17:30 we need to be ready for the Palm Sunday procession! This one is much bigger and clearly draws a lot more attention from the people of town. There’s a lot of people dressed up as characters from the Biblical story of Palm Sunday and the same Jesus statue as used in yesterday’s procession is walked down the streets. While Palm Sunday symbolises Jesus’ entrance to Jerusalem this procession enacts the crucifixion and the steps Jesus had to climb to the Calvary where he’d die. Mid-way the procession, where Jesus meets his mother, there’s a service held outdoors before the procession continues, now including a statue of the Holy Mary too. It’s very different from the day before yet just as impressive to witness (The video includes this procession too). One thing beautiful to see is that Braga has paired their Holy Week celebrations and decorations with their sympathy and prayers for Ukraine: for example, the yellow-blue flag is prominently in the middle of one of the town’s biggest festival decor. It is heartwarming to see that everywhere we go in this trip - big cities and the smalles towns - we find the Ukraine flag hanging from both government buildings and people’s homes. Hopefully this will continue to reflect the countries’ political support.

Submerged in Easter vibes, we leave the sweet little town of Braga while it will continue with celebrations the whole rest of the week without us.

PS: If anyone knows what music the procession band is playing please do comment as I thought it was absolutely beautiful 😊Read more