Religious buildings, and in particular small chapels, are often best suited and therefore often found in gentle landscapes, quiet nooks and lanes in cities or in the mountains at the end of a long cathartic walk. The sharp angled silhouette of the Chapel of Netos however, can be found at the end of a busy main road in a village on the west coast of Portugal. The proximity of traffic, noise fumes and the street has lead architect Pedro Maurício Borges to describe the project as an attempt to negotiate the divine with the profane.

Other than its location and the curious asymmetrical pyramidal roof structure, the most eccentric thing about the building is a glass niche carved deep into the northwest façade facing the road, which frames a strangely compelling statue of Christ. Visible from the street and as an altarpiece, the image of Christ through the thick glass is intended to mark the building out as a religious space. From the nave, the image will appear to float outside because the depth of the wall is not perceived from the inside.

The internal space – a small room with a few benches – is white and calm, with a window on the south side casting light onto the northwest wall.

The Chapel is built simply and cheaply, with a single-layer coating of limestone gravel, the effect is similar to the local stone. According to the architect the material is to equate the “pyramidal shape of the Chapel with the timelessness of stone construction, invoking also through the colour the stone used in monuments of the region”. It is certainly a curiosity and a brave contribution to its small town. Beatrice Galilee