Sanctuary of Our Lord Jesus of the Stone

Outside the town, on the road to Caldas da Rainha, stands the Sanctuary of Our Lord of Stone, a temple inaugurated in 1747, one of the main Baroque monuments in Portugal, it was erected by order of Tomás de Almeida, first Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon, and King João V. It was designed Captain Rodrigo Franco (from Mitra Patriarcal) and has the particularity of articulating a cylindrical volume (exterior) with a hexagonal polygon (interior), in plan centred to which three shapes are attached (two corresponding to the towers and the other corresponding to the sacristy). In its symmetries program, the game of inverted windows stand out. Its interior features three chapels: the chancel dedicated to Calvary, with a canvas by André Gonçalves, and the side chapels dedicated to Our Lady of Conception and Saint Joseph’s death, with canvases by José da Costa Negreiros. The peculiar stone image of Christ Crucified, in his own contraption on the Altar-Mor, was until the inauguration of the Sanctuary safeguarded in a small chapel next to the road to Caldas da Rainha where he was the object of great devotion, namely by King João V. There are several legends underlying the construction of the Sanctuary of Our Lord of the Stone, but they all have terrible agricultural years and diseases at the base, for which the image of the Lord of the Stone had intercessory power.