Aleijadinho’s Masterwork — A Pilgrimage to Congonhas

Lens-Artists Challenge #405: Adventures

Welcome back from the Lens-Artists short break! This week, Ann-Christine has asked us to share adventures we have experienced “from long ago or lately.” I wholeheartedly agree with her that “every day is an adventure.” Take a look at her post for her latest adventure, impressive photos, and inspiration. Here’s mine.

When we realized we had a free week — no family gatherings — while traveling in Brazil in May/June 2026, I suggested we spend it among the historic cities of Minas Gerais. The region around Ouro Preto, in particular, is celebrated for its colonial art and history, and one name rises above all the others there: Aleijadinho.

Antônio Francisco Lisboa (1738–1814), known to Brazilians as Aleijadinho — “the little cripple” — was the son of a Portuguese architect and an enslaved African woman. Around 1777, in his late thirties, he was struck by a debilitating disease that historians suspect was leprosy, which slowly cost him the use of his fingers and toes. And yet, he created most of his celebrated work after the illness set in, carving with a chisel and mallet strapped to what remained of his hands while his assistants carried him to and from the scaffolding. Knowing how he worked makes his masterpieces all the more astonishing. His favored medium was soapstone (pedra sabão, in Portuguese) — soft enough to carve, yet enduring.

Near Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais’s old colonial capital, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was our destination that day: the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus de Matosinhos at Congonhas, inscribed in 1985 as a masterpiece of Aleijadinho’s genius. (The other lovely towns nearby — Mariana, São João del Rei, and Tiradentes — are historic gems in their own right, though not themselves on the World Heritage list.) Fittingly, our first stop in the area was Congonhas, the start of our adventure.

Congonhas is nestled in the mountains of Minas Gerais. The city’s main attraction is the Basílica do Senhor Bom Jesus de Matosinhos, its twin white towers rising above a broad stone courtyard. On the terrace before the church stand Aleijadinho’s majestic Twelve Prophets, carved in soapstone between 1800 and 1805 — the last great works of a master already gravely weakened by illness. Each prophet holds a scroll inscribed with a passage from his prophecies.

Below the terrace, a view of Congonhas opens across the rooftops toward the mountains beyond — the featured photo of this post. Inside, the basilica rewards a slow look upward: the gilded Rococo altar and the painted ceiling, whose trompe-l’œil sky belongs to the school of Manoel da Costa Ataíde, Aleijadinho’s frequent collaborator.

Leaving the basilica, you can take a short downhill walk on a cobblestone path that passes the six Passos — small chapels holding the Stations of the Cross.

Inside them, Aleijadinho and his workshop arranged more than sixty polychrome cedar figures depicting the Passion of Christ, carved in the late 1790s and painted afterward. The scene I feature here is the Crucifixion itself — Roman soldiers raising the crosses as Christ is nailed, the faces caught mid-gesture, so vivid you half expect them to move.

This was an adventure I’d been dreaming of experiencing since I was a child in Brazil. Being in Congonhas and seeing those statues in real life was also a lesson I’d only seen in Brazilian history books.

It’s great to be back with the Lens-Artists Challenges. I totally enjoyed the beautiful responses I saw from Beth’s challenge before we went on a break. I hope you will join this week’s challenge, too. Please don’t forget to use the “lens-artists” hashtag in your posts to help people find your wonderful challenge entries.

Next week, Anne will feature a new challenge. It will go live at noon EST in the USA. Tune in to find out more about the challenge then. Please see this page for more information about the Lens-Artists Challenge and its history. If you don’t want to miss any future challenges, please consider subscribing to the team members’ websites. Here they are:

• Tina of Travels and Trifles.
• Patti of P.A. Moed.
• Ann-Christine of Leya.
• John of Journeys with Johnbo.
• Anne of Slow Shutter Speed.
• Sofia of Photographias.
• Egídio of Through Brazilian Eyes.
• Ritva of Ritva Sillanmäki Photography.
• Beth of Wandering Dawgs.

That is the story behind the shots. If you liked this post, you may also be interested in others featuring Aleijadinho, Brazil, Churches, Cityscapes, Congonhas, Landscapes, Lens-Artists, Minas Gerais, Santuário do Bom Jesus de Matosinhos, and UNESCO World Heritage. Until the next time, keep clicking and capturing the beauty your eyes find.

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Sources:

• UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Congonhas — https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/334/
• UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Historic Town of Ouro Preto — https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/124
• Encyclopædia Britannica — Aleijadinho — https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aleijadinho
• Wikipedia — Twelve Prophets of Aleijadinho — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Prophets_of_Aleijadinho
• Wikipedia — Sanctuary of Bom Jesus de Matosinhos — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctuary_of_Bom_Jesus_de_Matosinhos
• Encyclopædia Britannica — Amos (Hebrew prophet) — https://www.britannica.com/biography/Amos
• Wikipedia — Amos (prophet) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amos_(prophet)