Top things to do in Porto

Torre dos Clérigos

Torre dos Clérigos

The tower is one of Porto's most iconic buildings and its architect one of the town's most influencial of 18th century. The church and tower were designed by Nicolau Nasoni, and built between 1754 and 1763, for the irmandade dos clérigos pobres (the brethren of the poor clergymen).

Initially the project proposed two towers, one of which ends up leaving the project, eventually creating an atypical appearance, which although it has aspects typical of the Roman baroque, has a Tuscan bell structure, from where the architect was born.

The church is one of the first with an elliptical plan, the interior decorated with baroque motifs and monumental facade with influences of the Roman baroque. The tower also Italian Baroque has the mythical 240 steps to the top and from there one of the best panoramic views of the Port open to the public. This Tower also has a chime that is still manually handled at the right time, and which is one of the largest in the country.

The payment requested by the architect to the confraternity was that he was buried in the building after his death. Curiously in 2014 the whole complex underwent restoration work where 4 tombs have been found, to date forgotten, suspecting that one of them may be the architect Nicolau Nasoni himself.

In 1910 it was classified National Monument.