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The Sé de Lisboa, or Cathedral of Santa Maria Maior, is located in the city of the same name, in Portugal. It is the seat of the Patriarchate of Lisbon and the Parish of the Cathedral. Its construction began in the second half of the 12th century, after the conquest of the city from the Moors by D. Afonso Henriques, and today it presents itself as a mixture of architectural styles. It has been classified as a National Monument since 1910.

History

Origins

Lisbon has been the seat of a bishopric since at least the 4th century, at the end of Antiquity. It is also known that there were several bishops in the city during the Visigoth period, between the 5th and 7th centuries. At the beginning of the 8th century, Lisbon was conquered by the Moors, but the Christian population remained in and around the city. In 1147, when D. Afonso Henriques took the city from the Moors, Lisbon had a Mozarabic bishop (as Christians who lived under Muslim rule were called). After the reconquest of the city by the Portuguese king and the knights who took part in the Second Crusade, an English crusader, Gilberto de Hastings, was made bishop. Construction work on the cathedral then began, apparently on the site of the former mosque in Lisbon. At the same time, Afonso Henriques brought the relics of São Vicente de Zaragoza from the Algarve and deposited them in the Cathedral.

The Romanesque-style building of the Cathedral began to be erected in 1147 and was completed in the first decades of the 13th century. The project, with three naves with a triforium, a projecting transept and a transept with three chapels, is very similar to that of the Cathedral of Coimbra and follows Norman models. Its first architect was Mestre Roberto, probably of Norman origin, who worked on the construction of the Cathedral of Coimbra, Lisbon and the Monastery of Santa Cruz de Coimbra.

Middle Ages

Between the 13th and 14th centuries, the cloister was built in Gothic style, one of the main architectural works of the reign of D. Dinis. His successor, D. Afonso IV, modified the back of the Romanesque church, ordering the construction of an apse with an ambulatory in Gothic style to be used as a family pantheon. The king's will is expressed in his will, dated 1345, in which he says that "(...) However D. Affonso IV. by the grace of God King of Portugal, and of the Algarve, the honor and praise of God, and of the Glorious Virgin, Santa Maria sa Madre, and of Martre S. Vicente was built by my own expenses in the Cathedral Church of Lisbon û the Body of the Blessed S. Vicente already, the main hearing of the said Church with other chapels around, which heard I hey for my grave; and wanting more to add in this work for God to be praised, and to give me the award our holy glory of Paradise. (...)"

Despite the medieval ban on lay people being buried in the chancel, an exception was made for D. Afonso IV for his heroic performance in the Battle of Salado (1340). The new transept began to be built in the first half of the 14th century, but the works only ended in the beginning of the 15th century, during the reign of D. João I, when the tombs of D. Afonso IV and his wife, D. Beatriz, were transferred to the chancel. The creation of an ambulatory with a series of chapels at the apse was a work that modernized the Cathedral and made it more suitable for receiving pilgrims who came to see the relics of Saint Vincent. In the 14th century, Lisbon and the Cathedral were affected by several earthquakes. A strong earthquake at the beginning of the 15th century caused changes to the works, at that time it is possible that the arches that connected the ambulatory corridor to the chancel were closed.

Over the centuries, the Cathedral was decorated with various monuments and altars, most of which have been lost or are found scattered in other properties. The main chapel housed the tomb with the relics of São Vicente, which was decorated around 1470 with a large painted altarpiece - the so-called Panels of São Vicente de Fora - by Nuno Gonçalves, royal painter of King Afonso V The panels, a masterpiece of Portuguese painting from the 15th century, were taken down in 1614 and are today, along with other paintings from the Cathedral associated with São Vicente, at the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga.

In 1498, Queen D. Leonor de Avis founded the Brotherhood of Invocation to Our Lady of Mercy in the Chapel of Pedra Solta in the cloister of the Cathedral. The Brotherhood eventually gave rise to the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, a Catholic charitable institution that spread to other cities in the kingdom and colonies.

Self destruction

In the mid-17th century, a sacristy was built in Mannerist style next to the south façade of the Cathedral. In the 18th century, the Gothic chancel was altered in Baroque style. The great earthquake of 1755 affected the Cathedral, destroying the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, the south tower and the decoration of the chancel, including the royal tombs, and the cloister. The lantern tower partially collapsed and destroyed part of the nave's stone vault, which was rebuilt in wood.

In the following decades, the Cathedral underwent renovations and a redecoration campaign. Thus, between 1761 and 1785, the Capela do Santíssimo was rebuilt. Between 1769 and 1771, Reinaldo dos Santos coordinated major restoration works on the south tower of the façade, construction of the wooden roof of the nave and remodeling of the chancel, including the painting of the vault and stucco decoration by Félix da Costa. The naves were covered with painted wood and stucco decoration, and the new wooden roof of the central nave was equipped with oculi that allowed light to enter.

Still in the chancel, the royal remains were deposited in 1781 in new tomb vaults carved by Joaquim Machado de Castro and new royal tribunes were created by António Ângelo between 1787 and 1788. Two organs were also made for the chancel by Joaquim António Peres Fontanes, with boxes carved by António Ângelo in 1785-86.

Restoration

Much of the additions from the Baroque era were removed from a major restoration campaign that took place in the first half of the 20th century, whose objective was to restore the Cathedral to some of its medieval appearance. The first person in charge of the works, in 1902, was Augusto Fuschini, who planned a revivalist building in neo-Gothic style. Fuschini demolished some buildings flanking the church, rebuilt vaults, restored and opened windows and crowned the building with battlements. After his death, in 1911, the restoration project was resumed and modified by António do Couto Abreu, who began to focus on the still existing medieval structures. The vault of the central nave was rebuilt, the facade was restored and the rose window was redone, in addition to many other alterations that gave the building the neo-Romanesque appearance it has today. The plans included the construction of a neo-Gothic chancel, but opposition from figures such as architects Raul Lino and Baltasar de Castro saved both the post-earthquake decoration of the chancel and the Capela do Santíssimo.

After the reforms, the Cathedral was reopened in 1940, in a great ceremony promoted by the Estado Novo. A Te Deum was celebrated in the Cathedral on the 5th of May 1940, opening the ceremonies celebrating the 8th Centenary of the Foundation of Portugal and the 3rd Centenary of Independence. The Cathedral was also important in the celebration of the 8th Centenary of the Conquest of Lisbon from the Moors, in 1947.

Architectural characterization

The long series of renovations, earthquakes and reconstructions made today's Cathedral a mixture of styles. The last restoration campaign gave it a revivalist character, but many original elements can still be distinguished.

Plan and facades

The original Romanesque project of Lisbon's cathedral was very similar to that of the Sé de Coimbra, also built from the second half of the 12th century onwards. From the initial construction of the 12th and 13th centuries, the Cathedral maintains the general layout of a Latin cross plan with three staggered naves with a projecting transept. The nave has six spans, with the central nave higher than the lateral ones, the central one covered by a barrel vault and the lateral ones by cross vaults. The transept is also vaulted, crowned by rose windows at both ends. Over the side aisles there is a triforium (gallery), in Romanesque style, with arches open to the central nave. Over the transept stands a lantern tower, with an octagonal stone vault.

The church's main façade, facing west, was greatly modified in the 20th century restorations, but the general scheme of a central body with a portal and rose window flanked by two high buttressed towers follows the original Romanesque design. In the 20th century restorations, the rose window was rebuilt, some windows were opened and the towers and central body were crowned with battlements. The square-shaped towers have five archivolts on the last register that allow you to see the bells inside. The north tower is still largely authentic, but the south had to be partially rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake. Inside the north tower there is a chamber covered by a vault with four Romanesque masks at the corners, very similar to the transept vault of the Cathedral of Coimbra.

The main portal is protected by a narthex and is still the Romanesque original. It has four round archivolts with eight carved capitals with vegetal and figurative motifs. The figurative sculptures have different themes: men who fight mounted on lions, the Archangel Michael defeating the dragon, a figure of a queen (perhaps representing a virtue) and three small characters that could represent martyrs of Lisbon. On the north façade there is also a portal from the Romanesque period, with capitals with different motifs and probably executed by other artists.

Naves

The interior of the Cathedral has few fenestrations and is very dark, except for the chancel area, which is illuminated by lunettes. The central nave is taller than the sides and has a gallery of arcades - the triforium - similar to the one in the Cathedral of Coimbra. The nave's barrel vault had to be rebuilt in stone when the Cathedral was restored in the early 20th century.

On the left side of the entrance, there is a baptistery decorated with paintings and blue and white tiles that tell episodes from the life of Santo António de Lisboa. The baptismal font is made of marble and has an octagonal shape.

On the left side of the nave, close to the main façade, the portal of the Chapel of São Bartolomeu, built c. 1324 as a private chapel for the Lisbon merchant Bartolomeu Joanes. The chapel's portal, in Gothic style, is housed in a gable and has five archivolts with pointed arches with vegetal capitals. Inside, the rectangular chapel contains the tomb of Bartolomeu Joanes, dating from the 14th century and decorated with the deceased's coat of arms. Also on the north side nave is the portal of the Camarim do Patriarca, decorated inside with an altarpiece, images and paintings from the Baroque era.

Historian Carlos Alberto Ferreira de Almeida (1934-1996), in his book História da Arte em Portugal: O Românico [History of Art in Portugal: The Romanesque], mentions that in addition to the play of light present in the Lisbon Cathedral, another of the magnificent characteristic examples of Portuguese Romanesque style present in this building these are the iron, wooden or bronze fences that protect the side chapels where relics are often stolen, either for their economic value or out of devotion.

Sacristy

Attached to the south side nave is the Sacristy building, built in the mid-17th century (1649) and attributed to the architect Marcos de Magalhães. Inside, the marble inlays and the wooden chest by António Vaz de Castro stand out.

Transept

The transept area still has the original Romanesque vaults. However, during the restoration work in the 20th century, rose windows and arcades were added to the ends of the crossing's arms, which are of dubious authenticity. In the center and at the top of the transept is the octagonal vault of the lantern tower, with a central finial and ribs resting on corner trusses. As can be seen in old images of the Cathedral, the tower rising over this central area was square in plan and had three sections (floors), but after the 1755 earthquake it was reduced to a body covered with a roof.

In the north arm of the transept is the entrance to the Capela do Santíssimo Sacramento, decorated in the Baroque era.

Headboard: ambulatory and radiant chapels

Surveys carried out during the restoration in the 20th century showed that the original Romanesque chevet of the Cathedral had a modest structure, with a semicircular chancel flanked by two apses. The chevet began to be completely reformulated in the reign of D. Afonso IV (1325-1357), possibly already in the 1330s, in a work campaign that would only be completed in the beginning of the 15th century, during the reign of D. João I. The Gothic chevet consisted of a chancel surrounded by the ambulatory corridor with several radiating chapels, in a unique layout among Portuguese cathedrals. From an artistic point of view, the chevet of the Lisbon Cathedral was the most important Gothic work between the Monastery of Alcobaça (12th-13th centuries) and the Monastery of Batalha (14th-15th centuries) in Portuguese territory. The ambulatory still maintains the Gothic style and communicates with the transept through large pointed arches, but the profiles of the round arches of the ancient Romanesque apses are still visible.

The ambulatory corridor has a ribbed vaulted ceiling and is illuminated by a series of windows (clerestory) in the upper area. It is likely that, originally, the chancel communicated with the ambulatory through an open archway, like the apse of the Monastery of Alcobaça, which would allow the use of the temple by pilgrims who visited the relics of São Vicente, exposed in the chancel. . This communication, however, was closed at the beginning of the 15th century. The ambulatory opens to a series of radiant chapels, also covered by cross vaults with ogives and equipped with large windows with a Gothic profile. From the Gospel side (north) to the Epistle side (south) are the Chapel of the Holy Spirit (or of the Holy Trinity), which connects with the north wing of the cloister, Chapel of Nossa Senhora da Penha de França, Chapel of Santa Ana, Santa Maria Maior, Santo Ildefonso (or N. S. da Conceição), São Cosme and São Damião, Nossa Senhora da Piedade, with access door to the south wing of the cloister, the Chapels of São Sebastião and São Vicente.

Practically all the decoration of altarpieces and paintings from the Baroque era has been removed from the chapels of the ambulatory, but some old works remain. In the Chapel of São Cosme and São Damião you can still see the 14th century sarcophagus of Lopo Fernandes Pacheco, companion in arms of D. Afonso IV, and his wife Maria Vilalobos. The nobleman's recumbent shows the bearded figure of the knight, with his hand on the hilt of the sword and a dog at his feet, while the figure of the wife, whose head is protected by a carved canopy, is represented reading a book of hours with two dogs sitting at her feet. The two sarcophagi are still decorated with the coats of arms of the founders on the sides. The Chapel of Santa Ana has the tomb of an Infanta of the royal family, as indicated by the presence of the Portuguese coat of arms on the chest, also with a tomb that represents her reading a book of hours. The Chapel of Santa Maria Maior has an iron railing decorated with stylized phyto and zoomorphic motifs. Unique in Portugal, the similarity between this grid and others in present-day Spain, especially one from the region of Jaca, indicates that the one in the Lisbon Cathedral was still made in the Romanesque era, between the 12th and 13th centuries.

The Capela de Santo Ildefonso, on the other hand, houses a nativity scene, inserted in a contraption (showcase), made by the sculptor Joaquim Machado de Castro in 1766, as indicated by a caption on the structure ("Joach Machado Castro / invent. et fecit / 1766"). The crib includes representations inspired by the Bible such as the "Holy Family", the "Adoration of the Shepherds", "Flight to Egypt" etc, compositions with angels and popular scenes such as a blind man playing the accordion, people dancing fandango, washerwomen, windmills , a watermill and a "Matança do Porco".

Headboard: chancel

The current chancel is Baroque in character and was built and decorated in the second half of the 18th century, after the 1755 earthquake. The chapel has three sections separated by pilasters with Ionic capitals and is covered with red limestone panels, white, yellow and blue. The roof is vaulted with lunettes, which lets in light, covered with stucco and displaying various painted panels. The themes of the central panels are God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, while the side panels, located over the lunettes, represent symbols associated with Mary and Christ: the phoenix bird, the Agnus Dei, bread, sun, wheat, lily, door, rose, pelican and flames. The pavement is also coated with limestone in various shades, forming decorative geometric patterns.

The front wall of the chapel is occupied by a simple altar with a painted panel representing the "Assumption of the Virgin" surrounded by a stonework frame. Flanking the panel are two tribunes with a balcony and a balustrade, and next to them, facing each other, are the arcosoliums with the tombs of King Afonso IV and his wife Beatriz. The tombs, rebuilt after the earthquake by the sculptor Joaquim Machado de Castro, are urn-shaped. The king's is decorated with angels opening a curtain and is surmounted by an eagle and the Latin inscription "Altiora peto" ("I long for greatness"), referring to the Battle of Salado, in which King Afonso IV had an outstanding performance. The Queen's tomb is decorated by angels holding a cross, a book and a cornucopia, and is topped by a pelican. Both tombs bear the royal shields and the symbols of death: the skull with crossed shins.

The chancel also has two organs, one built in the 1780s by organ builder Joaquim António Peres Fontanes and the other recent, from the 1960s, built by the Dutch firm Flentrop.

Cloister

The Gothic cloister of the Cathedral was built during the reign of King Dinis and is located to the east (east) of the church, behind the transept. In general, the cloisters were built next to medieval temples, but it is likely that the unevenness of the site of the Lisbon Cathedral, on the side of a hill, made it impossible to build a cloister either on the north or on the south side. Another "strange" aspect of the Cathedral's cloister is the trapezoidal plan, considering that normally the cloister blocks had a regular square plan. The reasons for adopting this plan are not known, but could be related to difficulties with the terrain and the existing urban fabric. The location on a hill necessitated extensive work on grounding and leveling the land, in addition to the construction of large retaining walls, especially on the south side. A good part of the 13th-century intramural city also had to be destroyed to make room for the new structure.

The chronology of the cloister works is little known. There is a documental reference to a major construction activity in the Cathedral in 1332 that has traditionally been linked to the work on the cloister, but it is possible that this site was the site for the work on the chevet of King Afonso IV, and that the cloister is an earlier work. In fact, a document shows that, in 1281, there was constructive activity in the Cathedral under the responsibility of a certain Miguel Martins, perhaps related to the preparation of the land for the implantation of the cloister. Other documents indicate that burials began to take place in chapels in the cloister from 1302 onwards, and the chapel of Santo Estevão, located in the southeast corner of the square, was almost finished in 1305. Based on this evidence, historian Paulo Fernandes considers that the cloister would be finished in the first years of the fourteenth century.

The current cloister has three wings on the north, east and south sides, covered by cross vaults with warheads. These vaults present some formal "anomalies" due to the unusual trapezoidal plan of the block. The north and east wings have several chapels. The chapels on the north side (from west to east) are dedicated to São João Evangelista, São Lourenço, Nossa Senhora de Belém, Senhor Jesus da Boa Sentença, Santo António de Padua and Nossa Senhora da Torcha. On the east side, the chapels are dedicated to (from north to south) Santo Aleixo, São Miguel e Almas, Nossa Senhora da Piedade da Terra Solta (two chapels), São Gervásio and Santo Estevão, the latter former Chapter Room. The south wing, in contrast, was badly affected by the 1755 earthquake and subsequent fire, which caused part of the vault to ruin, and was extensively restored in the 20th century. In the southeast corner of the cloister, Augusto Fuschini built a neo-Gothic window with a balcony that overlooks the Tagus.

The facades of the wings facing the center of the courtyard have pointed arcades and staggered buttresses marking the sections of the wings. These archaic buttresses, which seem too robust for the structures they support, may have been built that way due to the relative instability of the embankment on which the cloister was built. The arcades rest on double columns with plant-based capitals. Over the arcades there are oculi (circular openings) with geometric decoration.

During the Middle Ages, one of the main functions of the cloister chapels was funerary, serving the city's elite. Despite being badly damaged in the earthquake and fire of 1755, some are worth mentioning. The Chapel of São Lourenço, in the north wing, has a tomb chest with a diamond-shaped lid with swords in relief and, on the sides, the coat of arms of D. Lourenço Anes, founder of the chapel. The Chapel of Santo Aleixo, covered by an arched vault, has four arcosoliums with tombs with recumbents. One of these, dating from the 14th century, belongs to a lady of unknown identity.

The large Chapel of Nossa Senhora da Pedra Solta, which occupies two sections of the east wing, is where Queen D. Leonor founded the Brotherhood of Mercy in 1498. The entrance to the chapel is via a portal with three archivolts resting on fine columns, with the portal flanked by two tinted windows. Inside there are two tombs with recumbents: that of D. Margarida Albernaz, from the second quarter of the 14th century, and that of an unidentified bishop, from the first half of the 14th century.

Organs

The Lisbon Cathedral houses three organs from different periods. The oldest instrument is found on the Gospel side and was built by Joaquim António Peres Fontanes between 1785 and 1786, together with a similar organ on the Epistle side, which was transferred to the National Pantheon (Igreja de Santa Engrácia) in the 1960s to allow the installation of the new Flentrop organ. The Peres Fontanes organ has a manual and pedalboard and is currently no longer operational.

The organ of the Epistle was built by D. A. Flentrop in 1964 and restored in 2012, also by the same organ workshop. The organ has 51 registers, four manuals and a pedalboard.

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