A igreja fica perto de casa.

In Brazilian Portuguese, ficar is very commonly used to talk about where something is located.

So A igreja fica perto de casa uses fica in the sense of is located / is situated.

• ficar = to stay, to end up, to be located
• fica = it is located / it stays in the present tense

Using é for physical location usually sounds unnatural here.
You might hear está sometimes, but for the location of a building or place, fica is often the most natural choice.

Fica is the third-person singular present tense of ficar.

The subject is A igreja, which is singular, so the verb is singular too.

A quick pattern:

• eu fico
• você/ele/ela fica
• a igreja fica
• nós ficamos
• eles/elas ficam

Because igreja is a feminine singular noun, and here it refers to a specific church.

So Portuguese uses the feminine singular definite article:

• a igreja = the church

Portuguese uses definite articles more often than English does, so keeping a here is very normal.

Yes. Igreja is a feminine noun, so it normally goes with feminine articles and adjectives:

• a igreja
• uma igreja
• a igreja bonita

Its grammatical gender is feminine regardless of whether the real-world thing has any biological gender.

Because perto normally uses the preposition de before a noun or pronoun.

Examples:

• perto de casa
• perto da escola
• perto do banco
• perto de mim

Notice that when de is followed by o/a, it usually contracts:

• de + a = da
• de + o = do

So:

• perto da igreja
• perto do mercado

This is a very common point for learners.

In Portuguese, casa often appears without an article when it means home, especially after prepositions:

• em casa = at home
• de casa = from home / of home, depending on context
• para casa = home

So perto de casa means something like near home.

If you say perto da casa, that usually means near the house — a specific house as a physical building.

Yes, absolutely.

• perto de casa = near home
• perto da minha casa = near my house / near my home

Both are natural.
Perto de casa is a little more idiomatic and general.
Perto da minha casa is more explicit.

It can mean either in different contexts, but in this structure it usually feels more like home.

That is because casa without an article after a preposition often has the more personal, idiomatic sense of home:

• estou em casa = I’m at home
• vou para casa = I’m going home
• perto de casa = near home

If you want to stress the physical building, a casa often fits better.

Usually no, not in a normal complete sentence like this.

In standard Portuguese, you would normally say:

• A igreja fica perto de casa.

Leaving out a can sound incomplete, headline-like, or unnatural in ordinary speech.

A good approximate pronunciation is:

• igreja ≈ ee-GREH-zhuh

A few helpful details:

• the i sounds like ee
• the j sounds like the s in measure: zh
• the r in gre is a light tapped sound in many accents
• the final a is usually weaker than English ah

A rough pronunciation of the whole sentence is:

• ah ee-GREH-zhuh FEE-kah PEHR-too djee KAH-zah

Pronunciation varies across Brazil, but that will get you close.

Yes, but A igreja fica perto de casa is the most neutral and natural order.

You could also hear something like:

• Perto de casa fica a igreja.

That is grammatically possible, but it sounds more marked, literary, or contrastive.
For everyday speech, the original order is the safest choice.

Yes, that is understandable and grammatically correct.

However, in Brazilian Portuguese, ficar is often more idiomatic when talking about the location of places and buildings.

So:

• A igreja fica perto de casa. = very natural for location
• A igreja está perto de casa. = also possible, but slightly less standard for this kind of fixed location

For a learner, fica is the better default in sentences like this.