Location: Largo de Sao Vicente
Tel. 21- 882 44 00
Bus: 12, 34
Trolley: 28
Open: Tue- Sun
Closed: public holidays
Sao Vicente de Fora or Roman Catholic Church of Saint Vincent is dedicated to patron saint of the city of Lisbon. It was constructed in 1173. Subsequently remains of Saint Vincent were brought here from a Algarve. Beautiful facade and its two towers that flank the main Western entrance of Saint Vincent Church was designed during late Renaissance. Three statues of Saint Vincent, Saint Augustine and Saint Sebastian stand over the entrance. Inside the church you can find graves of Portuguese kings that rest in stone sarcophagi starting from Juan IV (died in 1656) to Manuel II the last King of Portugal. The modern church of the monastery was built in 1582-1629, while other buildings were completed only in the XVIII century. For this reason, the monastery, originally built in the Romanesque style, has the features of Mannerism, and the altar painting of the XVIII century is made in the Baroque style.
It dates back to a church, begun in 1582 in the place where D. Afonso
Henriques had ordered the construction of a primitive temple also under
the invocation of São Vicente. This saint was proclaimed patron saint of
Lisbon in 1173, when his relics were transferred from the Algarve to a
church outside the city walls.
Construction only began in 1590 by
the architect and engineer Filippo Terzi (1520 - 1597) according to a
design by the Spanish architect Juan de Herrera (1530 - 1597). Another
prominent figure in the work of São Vicente de Fora is undoubtedly the
Portuguese architect Baltasar Álvares. The latter takes with him an
erudite learning of Roman Mannerism acquired through his Portuguese
architect and engineer uncle Afonso Álvares (15??-1580). Thus was born a
new architectural style in Portugal that would serve as a model in the
following religious constructions. The work was completed in 1627.
The church of São Vicente de Fora, located in the area of São
Vicente (Lisbon), an area that identifies the context of the medieval
surroundings of the city of Lisbon in the 16th century.
It is an
example of Mannerism in Portugal. It is possible to identify in this
church the presence of Gothic and Baroque styles. Due to the strong
military and religious presence, Portuguese architecture, to a certain
extent, was censored, maintaining the principles of previous styles.
It is considered the great architectural work of the Philippine
Dynasty and served as a model in the following religious constructions.
It was built outside the walls, and for that reason the name of São
Vicente de Fora appears.
The church and monastery have a notable
artistic content from the 17th century, the time of D. Pedro II and D.
João V, recognized for a period that was rich for the arts. It contains
pieces of Baroque tiles with more than 100,000 tiles from the Baroque
period, fables by La Fontaine and some renowned paintings from the 17th
century to the end of the 18th century.
On December 4, 1720, João
Frederico Ludovice was appointed "Master Architect of the Works of the
Royal Monastery of São Vicente de Fora", succeeding the architect Luís
Nunes Tinoco:
"(...) D. João, by the grace of God, (...) let
those who see this letter of mine know that I would like to do favor to
João Frederico Ludovice of the property of Master Architect of the Works
of the Royal Monastery from São Vicente de Fora to serve him in this way
and in the way that his predecessors served him..." (ANTT)
This
professional authored the imposing baroque altar, commissioned by D.
João V of Portugal, which occupies the center of the chancel. Placed
under the canopy, it rests on four powerful columns. On high plinths
stand out eight monumental images, in white painted wood, in the Italian
style of the School of Mafra Ludoviciana, representing São Vicente de
Fora and São Sebastião, having been executed by Manuel Vieira, to whom
the beautiful sculptures of angels, placed over the access doors to the
canons' choir.
From the beginning of August 2008 until the 22nd
of January 2011, the church was closed to the public due to lack of
safety conditions, due to considerable falls of stucco and mortar
inside, some weighing more than a kilogram, falling from a height of
about twenty meters.
The Church's restoration works destroyed the
painted stucco on the ceilings. Part of the operation was authorized by
technicians at the service of the State, who understood that there was
no justification for redoing the stucco, since they were not original at
the time of construction of the temple (17th century), but there were
areas of this national monument where the Regional Directorate de
Cultura de Lisboa e Vale do Tejo, which accompanied the work, guarantees
that it did not authorize any removal of stucco.
It has a rectangular plan with an Italian-style facade, sober and
symmetrical, with a tower on each side and statues of Saints Augustine,
Sebastian and Vincent over the entrance.
The imposing facade
painted in white is divided horizontally into three parts. The building
stands in front of a spacious and open square, the Largo de São Vicente,
it has a wide, well laid out but simple staircase. The churchyard sees
the birth of the first entablature, placing its architrave, frieze and
cornice on the capitals of ten tall Doric columns. In the three central
intercolumns open the three gates, simple, full turn, surmounted by
three niches crowned with attics. In the three niches are Saint
Augustine, in the centre, Saint Sebastian on the right and Saint Vincent
on the left. In the lateral intercolumns, in line with the others, there
are two niches where São Domingos de Gusmão is located on the right and
Santo António on the left. The second entablature on the façade has two
niches on the uprights, on the right you can see São Norberto and São
Bruno on the left. In the center, three majestic and harmonic high
windows. The third part of the facade consists of two turrets that rise
in showy columns, open with windows, decorated with a platband. From the
middle of them emerge two domes. A thirty-three-metre platform, adorned
with ornaments, joins the two turrets over the central body. In 1755,
its large dome collapsed, a piece that would enhance the symmetrical
beauty of the composition.
Inside, the following stand out:
a
baroque baldachin by Machado de Castro, above the altar, flanked by
life-size wooden statues.
a historic organ built in 1765 by the organ
builder João Fontanes de Maqueira. It is one of the best and largest
examples of Portuguese organ work from the 18th century.
a transept,
wide and of admirable architectural sense, although a little cold in
lines, is bordered around by an order of six pilasters, identical to
those in the nave. Over it rested the large dome, which collapsed in the
1755 earthquake. Nowadays, a rotunda wooden skylight, torn by eight
rectangular windows, somewhat disguises this absence.
The adjoining
former Augustinian monastery, accessed through the nave, preserves its
16th-century cistern and remains of the former cloister. It also stands
out for its 18th-century tile panels: at the entrance, next to the first
cloister, scenes of the attacks by D. Afonso Henriques on Lisbon and
Santarém by Manuel dos Santos are represented. Around the cloisters,
tile panels with rural scenes, surrounded by floral designs and cherubs,
illustrate La Fontaine's fables.
The Royal Pantheon of Braganças and the Pantheon of the Patriarchs of Lisbon are located in the premises of the Church.
The organ of São Vicente de Fora was probably built or rebuilt in
1765 by organ builder João Fontanes de Maqueira and restored by Cláudio
Rainolter and Christine Vetter in 1994, under the aegis of Lisbon 94,
European Capital of Culture, under the supervision of organist Joaquim
Simões da Hora.
The first recordings were made, still on LP, by
organists Pierre Cochereau (1965), Francis Chapelet (1966) and Geraint
Jones (1966). Currently, the following discs have been recorded in CD
format:
Jesús Martín Moro (organ), (1998), Tientos y Glosas en
Iberia, Ensemble Gilles Binchois, Dominique Vellard, Tempéraments, Radio
France, Toulouse les Orgues.
Joaquim Simões da Hora (organ), (2002),
Joaquim Simões da Hora: In Memoriam. São Vicente de Fora, 18.XII.1994,
Portugaler.
João Vaz (organ), (2014), Historic Organ (1765) São
Vicente de Fora, Lisbon, IFO Classics.
José Luiz González Uriol
(organ), (2015), José Luiz González Uriol in Lisbon: Iberian Organ,
Arkhé Artway.
Joaquim Simões da Hora (organ), (2016), Joaquim Simões
da Hora: In Concert, Portugaler.
Leaving the church, we went down the stairs. On the left side we have
the entrance to the portal to the monastery and we find the Pátio das
Laranjeiras, an open atrium that allows us to access the
monastery-museum. Here, a feeling of rest is combined with the rhythm of
the fountain water singing together with the smell of arbors and the
freshness of their shade. The elevation of the monastery is marked by a
luminosity that results from being facing west. On this floor is the
reception and cafeteria.
There is a passage through a tunnel that
takes us to a medieval cistern from the 12th century, located in the
west cloister, followed by a metallic walkway where more medieval
remains will be visible, further ahead there is the second cistern, this
more recent one precisely from the reign of King Filipe III.
At
the entrance to the monastery, between the cloisters is the sacristy,
its entrance is decorated with a Mannerist portal with decorations with
the royal arms, inside we will find polychrome marble coverings and
wooden furniture, on the ceiling decorated with painting from the 18th
century, on the floor there are anthropomorphic tombs from the 12th
century (knights of D. Afonso Henriques), there are also the tombs of D.
Carlos and Dom Luís Filipe, through the east cloister we have access to
the upper floor where find the chapel of Santo António.
The roof
is entirely composed of a rhythm of pinnacles that refer to the sense of
the sacred, where in these spaces of the church we have a breathtaking
view over Lisbon riverside.