Igreja da Penha

At the start of one of my first trips out of Rio, we were driving through the North Zone of the city when we passed a rather amazing sight. Luckily for me (kind of) we simultaneously hit a traffic jam, so there was plenty of time to get a photograph.

Crepuscular rays shining down on the twin steeples of Igreja da Penha.

What a striking sight: a church with 2 steeples, perched on top of a huge rock, seemingly surrounded by favelas. My curiosity was well and truly piqued.

Time passed, other things came up, and Igreja da Penha remained one of those places I kept meaning to visit. Until recently!

As the name suggests, the cathedral is located in the northern neighbourhood of Penha, not far from Rio’s international airport. As we don’t have a car, we had to take the metro to Central do Brasil and then go 5 stops on the train. The train itself is fine, but the walk between Penha station and the church did not feel safe, especially when we were on our way home and it was getting dark. If you don’t know Rio then I’d advise you to take a tour or hire a car.

The church is perched at the top of this huge monolith.

When we arrived at the Santuário (that is the name of the whole complex) we found a series of pretty fancy funiculars that take you to the foot of what was referred to as The Most Famous Staircase in the World.

You are going to climb the best known staircase in THE WORLD!.

My first thought was “Really? The most famous staircase in the world?” To paraphrase John Lennon, it’s not even the most famous staircase in Rio! Surely that prize goes to Selaron’s magnum opus?

Anyway, whether it’s the most famous or not, it’s certainly a very impressive set of steps. As that sign goes on to explain, the steps are carved directly out of the stone. That must have taken ages!

Here you can see the ‘raw’ rock on the left and the carved steps on the right.

These steps are pretty amazing. There are 382 steps in total and before I arrived I had read somewhere that pilgrims come and climb the steps on their knees, saying a prayer for each step. We decided to take the more conventional approach of walking up using our feet. The views from the top are pretty spectacular.

Igreja da Penha overlooks Favela Vila Cruzeiro on one side and Complexo do Alemão on the other.

Here you can see the Teleférico of Complexo do Alemão.

The church itself is fairly simple but quite sweet on the inside.

The caretaker decided it was time to do some frantic sweeping as I took my photo!

Just to the side of the church is the Sala dos Milagres (Room of Miracles). For me this was probably the most strange part of the whole day. The walls and ceiling of this small room were blackened with smoke from countless candles that had been lit in the hope of a miracle. But there was more to it that just that.

Look closely at some of those candles…

People bring candles in forms related to their wishes. Perhaps the belly was brought by someone who wanted to get pregnant, the breast might be related to breast cancer.

As we left the church and made our way down the steps we passed a woman coming up the steps on her knees – I hadn’t noticed her on the way up, so I guess either she was really quite fast or maybe she was continuing from a midway point that she had stopped at before.

I’m pretty sure those two cheeky boys in the video were in a hurry to get to the amusement park that is conveniently located right at the bottom. How better to persuade your kids to visit a church than with the offer of some fun at the end?

These kids look like they’re having a little too much fun don’t they? Scary…