It is located in Sítio da Nazaré, a neighborhood in Vila da Nazaré, located in Largo de Nossa Sra. da Nazaré, parish and city of Nazaré, central Portugal
The Sanctuary rises at the end of a spacious yard, on a higher plane, and access to the interior is via a semi-circular staircase passing through the porches.
On the side of each facade there is a body of two-story buildings, and after crossing the portico you enter the church with a single nave in the shape of a Latin cross measuring 42 m long by 10 m wide.
In the body of the church, lit by eight windows, and with a semi-cylindrical paneled wooden roof, there are four gilded altars (1756), and two pulpits from the same period. (“paneled” - an ornament traditionally applied to a plaster or wooden panel)
At the entrance, supported by fluted Doric columns stands the tall choir with an organ in the center.
You can access the crossing covered by a stone dome with a lantern by a large arch surmounted by the royal coat of arms.
In each arm of the transept covered by a stone vault, there is an altar, with the upper walls covered in Dutch tiles that adorn the walls from top to bottom like tapestries.
On the right arm, the panels depict scenes from the life of David, and the left show episodes from the life of Joseph, son of Jacob, two other panels with scenes from the biblical episode of Jonah the prophet with the whale, and topped by angels located over the doors leading to the porches.
In the opening of the south door there are two mutilated panels with invitation figures in the shape of a Roman soldier.
In the year 1708, the transept panels totaling 6568 tiles were ordered by the Sanctuary administration from the company of Wilhelm Van der Kloet (1666-1747) in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands.
The main chapel is covered by a round stone vault, and is separated from the rest of the space by a rosewood balustrade with marble columns.
Its floor is made of marble inlays of various colors and is raised five steps, and at the back the baroque altarpiece with gilded and polychrome Solomonic columns contains the niche with glass where the sacred image is venerated behind and above the main altar.
The sacristy, as well as the corridors and other rooms around the chancel are profusely decorated with Portuguese tiles from the early 1800s, from the Lisbon workshop of António Oliveira Bernardes.
Highlighted here are the panels in the vault of the south aisle as the “Assumption of the Virgin”, and those on the walls of the sacristy with prophets.
The imposing room has a coffered ceiling with the royal coat of arms in the center, and has chests topped by paintings whose theme is the “legend of Nazaré” and has walls covered in tiles (17th century), and the floor is made of hydraulic mosaic (19th century).
In the chests there is an altar with a Calvary in front of the door, and next to the ceiling are placed six large canvases alluding to the “Passion of Christ”, and from this place the iron staircase that leads pilgrims to the sacred image of “Our Lady of Nazaré” in the chancel.
Our Lady of Nazaré is the name given to an image carved in wood approximately 25 cm high representing the Virgin Mary sitting on a low bench breastfeeding the Baby Jesus with her faces and hands painted in a "brunette" color.
The image of Our Lady of Nazaré, according to oral tradition, was carved by Saint Joseph the carpenter when Jesus was still a baby, and the faces and hands painted, decades later, by Saint Luke, are venerated in the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Nazaré, in Sítio da Nazaré, in Portugal.
Inside the Sanctuary, the Sacred image of “Our Lady of Nazareth” is kept, made up of a Black Virgin carved in wood, and brought from Mérida to this site (in the year 711), and the story of this image is told in the Legend of Nazareth.
On the side of each facade there is a body of two-story buildings, and after crossing the portico you enter the church with a single nave in the shape of a Latin cross measuring 42 m long by 10 m wide.
In the body of the church, lit by eight windows, and with a semi-cylindrical paneled wooden roof, there are four gilded altars (1756), and two pulpits from the same period. (“paneled” - an ornament traditionally applied to a plaster or wooden panel)
At the entrance, supported by fluted Doric columns stands the tall choir with an organ in the center.
You can access the crossing covered by a stone dome with a lantern by a large arch surmounted by the royal coat of arms.
In each arm of the transept covered by a stone vault, there is an altar, with the upper walls covered in Dutch tiles that adorn the walls from top to bottom like tapestries.
On the right arm, the panels depict scenes from the life of David, and the left show episodes from the life of Joseph, son of Jacob, two other panels with scenes from the biblical episode of Jonah the prophet with the whale, and topped by angels located over the doors leading to the porches.
In the opening of the south door there are two mutilated panels with invitation figures in the shape of a Roman soldier.
In the year 1708, the transept panels totaling 6568 tiles were ordered by the Sanctuary administration from the company of Wilhelm Van der Kloet (1666-1747) in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands.
The main chapel is covered by a round stone vault, and is separated from the rest of the space by a rosewood balustrade with marble columns.
Its floor is made of marble inlays of various colors and is raised five steps, and at the back the baroque altarpiece with gilded and polychrome Solomonic columns contains the niche with glass where the sacred image is venerated behind and above the main altar.
The sacristy, as well as the corridors and other rooms around the chancel are profusely decorated with Portuguese tiles from the early 1800s, from the Lisbon workshop of António Oliveira Bernardes.
Highlighted here are the panels in the vault of the south aisle as the “Assumption of the Virgin”, and those on the walls of the sacristy with prophets.
The imposing room has a coffered ceiling with the royal coat of arms in the center, and has chests topped by paintings whose theme is the “legend of Nazaré” and has walls covered in tiles (17th century), and the floor is made of hydraulic mosaic (19th century).
In the chests there is an altar with a Calvary in front of the door, and next to the ceiling are placed six large canvases alluding to the “Passion of Christ”, and from this place the iron staircase that leads pilgrims to the sacred image of “Our Lady of Nazaré” in the chancel.
Our Lady of Nazaré is the name given to an image carved in wood approximately 25 cm high representing the Virgin Mary sitting on a low bench breastfeeding the Baby Jesus with her faces and hands painted in a "brunette" color.
The image of Our Lady of Nazaré, according to oral tradition, was carved by Saint Joseph the carpenter when Jesus was still a baby, and the faces and hands painted, decades later, by Saint Luke, are venerated in the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Nazaré, in Sítio da Nazaré, in Portugal.
Inside the Sanctuary, the Sacred image of “Our Lady of Nazareth” is kept, made up of a Black Virgin carved in wood, and brought from Mérida to this site (in the year 711), and the story of this image is told in the Legend of Nazareth.
