Igreja da Misericórdia

This guide to Igreja da Misericordia in Porto opens with the painting that greets you inside, a towering Flemish work from around 1518 showing members of Portugal's royal family kneeling in the blood of the crucified Christ. It traces that image back to a charity brotherhood founded in 1498 by the widowed queen Leonor to nurse the sick and bury the poor, and to Porto's own chapter, which took root here by 1550. You'll also hear about Nicolau Nasoni, the architect behind the nearby Clerigos Tower, and the ornate facade he later added to this plain charity chapel. Take a moment with the painting's title before you look away.