Barcos Parish Church

The Church of Nossa Senhora Da the Assumption, in the center of the urban core of Barcos, is a temple of medieval origin around which the village developed, the center of a fertile agricultural region. Here stands a Romanesque-Gothic church, built after the Sanctuary of Nossa Senhora do Sabroso, which was the original seat of the parish. It is a rectangular church with a single nave and a Mannerist chancel, lower and narrower, with a sacristy attached to the left side façade. It has undergone a great deal of intervention in the modern era, but retains several elements of the original construction, such as the portals (axial and lateral), the corbelled finish of the nave, the arches inside, ashlars with marks of Romanesque flower beds and corbels in the sacristy. A cross is attached to the façade, which is accessed via two semicircular steps. A Way of the Cross niche is attached to the right-hand side façade and a second cross appears in the body of the chancel. The interior is noteworthy for its masonry roof in the nave and false wooden barrel vault with painted coffering in the chancel; two pointed arches with tombs; the wooden pulpit with baldachin and bronze marquetry; the round triumphal arch with an intrados decorated with painting and covered in national carving, the carved altarpiece in the same style, the bowl-shaped baptismal font in the brotherhood room, the oratory in the sacristy, made of polychrome carving with fake marbling, gilded details and floral motifs. One of the greatest highlights, however, is the medieval mural painting, hidden behind the main altarpiece, depicting Our Lady with the child on her lap, flanked by St. John the Evangelist (on the left) and St. Peter (on the right). It was studied in 1986 by the Mural Painting Division of the José de Figueiredo Institute, which concluded that it would be impossible to restore it without removing the altarpiece structure. In the surrounding area there is a garden area, and there are the old Town Hall and Jail, the old Community Oven, the Town Hall, a fountain and a Centenary cross.