Classified as a National Monument since 1910, the Clérigos architectural complex, due to its Church and its Tower, it is one of the main points of interest, and a place of visit for those who dislocate to Porto, being a former librarian of the ” Invicta “, and an excellent viewpoint on the same.
The Tower offers a breathtaking view over the city of Porto, at more than 75 meters high, with its 225 steps, being that in a perspective at 360 °, it is possible to enjoy a unique moment, be it day or at night, when in specific times, the tower opens its doors to its visitors until 23 hours.
The project as a whole, saw the beginning of its work in 1732, the year following the approval of the plan of the Italian architect Nicolau Nasoni by the Brotherhood of Clérigos, which had existed since 1707, with headquarters in the Church of Misericórdia, resulting from the fusion of three Confraternities.
The church and the Tower are part of a baroque-inspired building dating from the 18th century, which marked the city’s urban configuration, located on an uneven street, but superbly used by Nicolau Nasoni, who managed to create a landmark building in Oporto. The Church and the Tower are united by the Casa da Irmandade, which since 2014, after its musealization, it is open to the public. The Baroque features that define the Clérigos Tower, are the maximum expression of the baroque spectacular, where the typical motifs of the respective style give the movement and beauty to the tower.
The works of the church were the first to know its progress, being that the project of its construction, authored by Nicholas Nasoni, was approved in December 1731, at the meeting of the Brotherhood of Clérigos, which was begun in April 1732, with the opening of the foundations, thus beginning the construction of what would become the first church in Portugal with an ellipse-form plant.
The works of the construction of the Church was very time-consuming (with an interruption between 1734 and 1745). In the last year, it was necessary to procede an inspection of the foundations of the façade, destroying what existed to rise again, with secure bases. Due to the same fact, the Church was fully completed only in about 1750, although, the staircase of access to the main portal dates back to the years 1750-53 / 1754 (later changed in 1827).
Thus, in 1749, seventeen years after the beginning of its construction, the construction of the church was concluded, however, its equipment and, later, the enlargement of the chapel, extended for a few more years the works in its structure.
The gallery that surrounds the nave, making possible to observe the Church as a whole, it is a unique characteristic of the monument. The several existing windows allow the entrance of light, which enhances the splendor of the golden carving, present in the Church, creating a beautiful set of colors with marble.
In the same, there is the dome, which has the coat of arms of the Brotherhood of the Clérigos, in pretense granite, and rests on six pillars, standing out two pulpits and two grids (the oldest examples of gilded carving in the church), opening four side altars: the Santíssimo Sacramento, Nossa Senhora das Dores, Santo André Avelino and São Bento.
At the back of the church there is the spacious chapel, rectangular oblong (longer than wide), embellished with a marble altar and a retable of inspiration in rococo style, traced between 1767 and 7180 by the architect Manuel Dos Santos Porto, which dominates a throne crowned by the image of the patroness, Nossa Senhora da Assunção. At the flanks of the altarpiece stand out the co-patron saints of the Brotherhood of the Clérigos, São Pedro ad Vincula and São Filipe Néri, two painted wooden sculptures.
In the same main chapel, there is next to it, the chair and two organs of Iberian tubes or “Portuguese”, whose construction began simultaneously during the year of 1774. The chair was finished in 1777 and the organs only Two years later.
On the other hand, the beginning of the Cléri of gos Tower, dates back to the year 1753, when, at the request of the Brotherhood of Clérigos, Nicolau Nasoni, presented the project for the construction of a bell tower, having, in 1754, started the works of the one that would come To be the most beautiful and towering Tower, dominating the entire urban landscape of Porto. In July 1763, its construction was finished, with the placing of the iron cross on top, and the image of São Paulo in the niche above the door.
At the Clérigos Tower, there is a Museum, where, through the course of the Casa da Irmandade (1754-1758), one arrives at it, propitiating a return to the past, in an experience of exploring spaces that where once were private and destined to the daily life of the Brotherhood of Clérigos.
The “Casa do Despacho”, the “Sala do Cofre”, the ” Cartório”, and the old infirmary, allow the Museum to have a collection of cultural assets of considerable artistic value, from the 13th untill the 20th century, that extends in the collections of sculpture, painting, furniture and jewelery. The same goods belong to a historical and cultural heritage whose historical function has given rise to its musealization. In the Brotherhood of Clérigos, it worked until the end of the 19th century, an infirmary dedicated to the treatment of the patients of the Clérigos, which was converted into an exhibition space, which is currently in activity.
In 2014, it was created a project of rehabilitation and valorization of the Clérigos building, providing a revival of the same, returning to it the splendor and beauty created initially by Nicolau Nasoni in the XVIII century. The project provided adequate conditions for the reception of visitors and the musealization of their spaces, as well as meeting the structural and accessibility needs, creating infrastructures for the same purpose. Between them, an elevator, which does not allow access to the tower, takes the visitor to know the Museum of Irmandade as well as the A + Room, located on the top floor of the building, being an inclusive room where was inserted a multisensory perception station that simulates the visit to the top of the Tower in real time.
After the concretization of the respective valorization project, it is possible to make, at the Clérigos Tower, an interpretative route through the thematic rooms – Foundation of Irmandade; Nicolau Nasoni- life and artistic course (1691-1773); Nasoni and the Baroque Architecture of the Great Port, as well as to know the history of the Brotherhood of Clérigos, the biography of Nicolau Nasoni and his work.
