Chapel of Our Lady of Monte

Located on one of the tops of the Serra da Chela, the Chapel of Nossa Senhora do Monte is not only a religious pilgrimage sanctuary that has great symbolism and importance for the Catholic community, but also an important tourist and historical asset.
Its construction process is closely associated with the colonial objective underway at the time, as it served to consolidate the Catholic faith in the then district of Huíla among the natives and among the Portuguese (mainly Madeirans) involved in the colonial process.
Its geographical location is also related to an initial project for the construction of the Moçâmedes Railways which, in order to avoid the city centre, was to surround the mountain belt.

After the works were advanced, the difficulties inherent in the construction of a bridge claimed many lives among workers, leading the CFM to definitively abandon the construction of the railroad on this route.
It was then that the authorities of the time decided to build a shrine to symbolize Our Lady (mother of Jesus) and, cumulatively, to honor the souls lost during the attempted construction of the aforementioned viaduct.
The construction of the chapel can be analysed in two moments, a first primitive building, which still unfinished, was inaugurated on August 15, 1902, with the celebration of an outdoor mass, sponsoring this homily was an image of Our Lady of the Conception, offered by a settler named Venâncio Ferreira Rodrigues who acquired it in the Portuguese city of Porto, in fulfillment of a promise.

On behalf of the Bishop of Angola and Congo, the local parish priest blessed the completion of the work on 14 August 1903.
From this date onwards, the chapel became a place for pilgrimage, becoming a tradition. A decade and a half later, João Henrique de Azevedo conceived and designed a larger chapel with greater visibility throughout the then town of Sá da Bandeira.

It was opened in 1921.
From the beginning of the thirties of the last century, the image began to be brought to the park, due to the difficulties in traveling to the chapel, inherent to the elderly, giving rise to the current Procession of Candles, where the same image, accompanied by thousands of people, runs the route between the Chapel and the Cathedral of Lubango.
It is a magical place, full of spirituality, which takes us to the last row of a gigantic amphitheater with the majestic valley as a backdrop.