The Beja Regional Museum has another branch at this ancient church.
The Igreja de Santo Amaro was actually founded in the 900s when Beja was under Moorish control.
And while it is now a chapel within a newer church dating to the 1500s, a lot of pre-Romanesque art remains at this Portuguese National Monument.
It shows the first signs of a hierarchy at a church, with a narthex for outsiders, the nave for members of the congregation and the equivalent of a choir, strictly for the clergy.
One of the columns has spiral carvings, and the capitals have plant and animal motifs, including an image of a pair of birds hunting a snake.
