Santuário do Senhor da Pedra

Outside the town, on the road to Caldas da Rainha, stands the Santuário do Senhor da Pedra, a temple opened in 1747, one of the main baroque monuments in Portugal, it was erected by order of D. Tomás de Almeida, first Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon , and King D. João V.

The design of the work was created by Arq. Captain Rodrigo Franco (from Mitra Patriarcal) and has the particularity of articulating a cylindrical volume (exterior) with a hexagonal polygon (interior), in a centered plan to which three bodies are attached (two corresponding to the towers and another corresponding to the sacristy).

In its symmetry program, the game of inverted windows stands out. Its interior has three chapels: the chancel dedicated to Calvary, with a painting by André Gonçalves, and the side chapels dedicated to Our Lady of Conception and the Death of Saint Joseph, with paintings by José da Costa Negreiros.

The “strange” stone image of the Crucified Christ, on its own display in the Main Altar, remained until the inauguration of the Sanctuary in a small hermitage next to the road to Caldas da Rainha where it was the object of great devotion, particularly from King D. João V.

There are several legends underlying the construction of the Sanctuary of Senhor Jesus da Pedra, but all of them present the basis of bad agricultural years and illnesses, for which the image of Senhor da Pedra had the power of intercession.