Mercy Church

In Pederneira, in Misericórdia Square, lies this late 18th century temple with Mannerist features and classified as Public Interest Monument.

The primitive Chapel of Mercy was created to house the Brotherhood of Mercy of Pederneira established before 1561, which had as its main function to administer the Hospital of Pederneira.

In 1877, the Brotherhood was extinguished and its possessions passed to the Royal House of Our Lady of Nazaré and served to found a hospital in Sítio da Nazaré to continue the assistance work of the Mercy. Probably, at the time, the old hospital and the brotherhood house would already be in a near ruin state. From those times still remain the entrance gate and a staircase on the west side of the church.

The present temple is characterized by the wide façade of late classical Baroque. The interior has a central nave covered by a false wooden vault, without main chapel. It preserves, on the Epistle Side, the rostrum of the Brotherhood with five marble Ionic columns. On the same side, at the entrance, one can see a memorial stone, dated from 1716, with the obligations of the members of the Brotherhood.

Over the entrance door there is a panel of tiles displaying Our Lady of Mercy. The pulpit deserves a close look for its beautiful canopy in gilded woodcarving. The main altar is demarked from the body of the church by two steps and a wooden balustrade. The lateral altars, also in gilded woodcarving, are sided by grooved columns, and have the statues of Our Lord of Cana Verde, on the right, and Our Lady of Solitude, on the left.

In this church is kept, on the high altar of baroque gilded woodcarving, a beautiful statue of Our Lord of the Stations of the Cross, of great popular devotion, which is celebrated in procession three weeks after Carnival. Beneath that, a glass box altar exhibits a statue of the Deceased Christ.