Bom Jesus do Monte Funicular

This water-powered funicular near Braga climbs the wooded slope beneath the celebrated Bom Jesus do Monte sanctuary, and is the oldest of its kind still operating in the Iberian Peninsula, opened in 1882. Two counterbalanced wooden cars are moved by filling and emptying water tanks, requiring no external energy, a remarkable survival of nineteenth-century engineering. The short ascent spares pilgrims the long baroque stairway, delivering them near the hilltop church with its sweeping view over the city and the Minho countryside below.