Capela dos Alfaiates, Porto

What makes this small chapel extraordinary is that it has already survived being moved. In 1953, it was rebuilt here between Rua do Sol and Rua de São Luís after redevelopment around Porto Cathedral threatened its earlier setting. Its story begins with the tailors’ confraternity, whose protectors were São Bom Homem and Our Lady of August.

In 1554, the brotherhood began building a new chapel opposite the cathedral’s main front. Standing still, you can take in the entrance: fluted Corinthian columns frame the portal, and a Flemish-inspired niche above it holds a terracotta figure of Our Lady of August. This is a key northern Portuguese example of the passage from late Gothic building to Flemish-influenced Mannerism.

The chapel is recognised as a National Monument, a status it has held since 1927. If you visit Monday through Saturday between two and five in the afternoon, the interior reveals that meeting of styles more fully. The nave’s high rib vault retains late-Gothic structure but introduces Mannerist ornament.

Beyond the rounded arch, the Mannerist altarpiece divides scenes from the Virgin’s life into eight painted panels, made around 1590 to 1600. At its centre is an older limestone image of Our Lady of August, shaped by northern European sculptural influence.