Largo do Pelicano - Bom Jesus - Braga

A staircase of three steps between two obelisks provides access to the Pelican Square.

In the square there is a fountain depicting a pelican feeding its young with its own blood. From the wound flows water into three basins. This is another symbolic element that reminds us of the Eucharist, the sacrifice of Christ: who gives his own body to feed others .

In the past, the Pelican , under the pretext that it fed its young with its flesh and blood, was considered a symbol of fatherly love. For this reason, Christian iconography considers it a symbol of Christ.

The square is also called the Garden of Moses . Here stood the original church , built at the initiative of the Archbishop of Braga, D. Rodrigo de Moura Teles, and completed in 1725. It was an ellipsoidal construction, surmounted by a lace parapet, with eight pilasters.

The walls may have been damaged in 1780 by the great earthquake of 1755. The pressure of the vault had caused the walls to shift and they had to be reinforced with tree trunks. The construction project for the current temple dates from this period.

On the site where the tower of this primitive church once stood, there now stands the statue of Saint Longuinho on a rock.

On the north side of the courtyard stood a statue of Moses, now moved to a rock next to a small lake in Bom Jesus Park.

Willem Vandenameele