As the ‘ex libris’ of the city of Viana do Castelo, from its site you can see a unique view of the region, which combines the sea, the Lima river with its valley, and the entire surrounding mountain complex.
The architectural project (1899) was designed by Miguel Ventura Terra.
History
The sanctuary dedicated to the cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, at the top of the hill of Santa Luzia, was begun in 1904 and completed in 1959 on the initiative of the Confraternity of Santa Luzia, the organisation that oversees the monument.
Its institution is due to Cavalry Captain Luís de Andrade e Sousa who, suffering from a serious eye condition, turned to the now-defunct chapel of Santa Luzia, the advocate of sight, as a way of gratifying the grace he had received.
Templo-Monumento glorifies the name of Santa Luzia to whom Cavalry Captain Luís de Andrade e Sousa turned, in the now-defunct chapel of Santa Luzia, suffering from a serious eye condition.
Now convalescent, he set up the Confraternity of St Lucy as a way of gratifying the grace he had received. Before the temple, there was a small medieval chapel dedicated to St Lucy, patron saint of sight, whose attribute is her eyes arranged on a spire.
At the end of the 19th century, the first president of the Confraternity of Saint Lucy, Cavalry Captain Luís de Andrade e Sousa, suffering from an eye problem, began to visit the small chapel, praying and asking for a solution to his problem. When his sight was restored, he set up the Confraternity of Santa Luzia in 1884, taking over the isolated and abandoned chapel and ordering the construction of a road linking the town to the hill.
The privileged location called for a building that would do justice to it and to the panorama that could be seen from it, with the aim of revalorising the hill and the ruins of the Citânia de Santa Luzia.