Igreja dos Carmelitas Descalços

Igreja dos Carmelitas Descalços tickets: which one to buy

The Carmelite church is the left-hand half of the famous pair of churches on the corner of Praca de Carlos Alberto in central Porto, joined to the tiled church of the Third Order of Carmel by a house barely a metre and a half wide. Entry to the church is free, and it is usually quieter than its neighbour, whose blue tile wall draws the photographers.

A museum route sold on the Third Order side takes in the narrow house and the rooms between the two churches, and it is the only way to see how the pair fits together, so buy it if you are curious about that story. Walking tours of Porto pass the corner on the way between the Clerigos tower, the Lello bookshop and the university, and most stop long enough for a look inside. The church is still used for worship, and visiting pauses during mass. Nothing needs booking, and ten minutes inside is often enough to see why the building belongs on the route.

Visiting Igreja dos Carmelitas Descalços: what to see

The Discalced Carmelite friars built this church and their convent in the early seventeenth century, finishing the church around 1628, and it is the older of the two. Its front is a sober granite composition in the mannerist style of the period, with columns, a triangular pediment and niches holding statues of Carmelite saints, including Teresa of Avila, founder of the reformed branch of the order.

Inside, the calm exterior gives way to the gilded carved woodwork that fills Portuguese churches of the baroque age: altarpieces covered in gold leaf, twisted columns, cherubs and vines climbing around paintings and statues. When religious orders were suppressed in Portugal in 1834 the convent buildings were taken over by the state, and they have long served as barracks for the national guard. The narrow house was built so that the two churches would not share a wall, a rule that kept the friars and the lay brotherhood strictly apart.

Igreja dos Carmelitas Descalços opening hours and the best time to go

The church is open through most of the day, with a break at lunchtime on some days and shorter hours on Sundays around services. Morning is the best time to see the pair of churches from across the square, before tour groups gather on the corner and while the sun is on the facades. Porto is busiest from late spring to early autumn, when the streets around the university and the Lello bookshop are crowded from mid-morning.

Winters are mild but wet, and the churches make a good refuge from rain. The night of Saint John in late June is the city's biggest festival, and the whole centre fills with crowds until dawn. The tram stop for line 22 is a short walk away. Allow ten to fifteen minutes here, and combine the visit with the Third Order church and its museum route next door.