Mother Church

Mother Church
Igreja Matriz of Monchique was erected in the 15th and 16th centuries, having been reconstructed, as so many other buildings in Portugal, after the 1755 earthquake.

It has lateral doorways and a Manueline portal with an unusual decoration: the knotted columns that frame it end in five pinnacles.

Inside it has three naves separated by decorated pillars with the same motifs of the portal.

On the altar of the main chapel (from the 18th century), two angles hold the Sun and the Moon.

The dazzling glitter of the gilded wood-work enhances all this and makes the altar stand out against the whiteness of the walls.

One of the chapels has a vault decorated with 17th-century glazed tiles; St.

Francis and St.

Michael are represented in the panels that cover the walls.

In the Chapel of Nossa Senhora do Carmo it is worth admiring the simple wood altar of unusual shape, as well as the image of Our Lady of the Conception, dating from the 18th century and probably criated by the sculptor Machado de Castro.