The Porto Cathedral ( pt, Sé do Porto) is a Roman Catholic church located in the historical centre of the city of

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

, Portugal. It is one of the city's oldest monuments and one of the most important local Romanesque monuments.

Overview

Unlike what's often written, the current Cathedral of Porto was not built under the patronage of Bishop Hugo since the pre-Romanesque church is still mentioned in the ''

De Expugnatione Lyxbonensi ''De expugnatione Lyxbonensi'' ('On the Conquest of Lisbon') is an eyewitness account of the Siege of Lisbon at the start of the Second Crusade, and covers the expedition from the departure of the English contingent on 23 May 1147 until the fall o ...

'' as still extant in 1147. This means the present building was only started in the second half of the century and it would be constantly under works well until the 16th century (without counting later Baroque and 20th century interventions), but there is evidence that the city has been a bishopric seat since the Suevi domination in the 5th-6th centuries. The cathedral is flanked by two square towers, each supported with two

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

es and crowned with a cupola. The façade lacks decoration and is rather architecturally heterogeneous. It shows a

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including th ...

porch and a beautiful Romanesque

rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' w ...

under a

crenellated A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interv ...

arch, giving the impression of a fortified church. Porto Cathedral, Altar area H

The Romanesque nave is rather narrow and is covered by

barrel vault A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...

ing. It is flanked by two

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parl ...

s with a lower vault. The stone roof of the central aisle is supported by

flying buttress The flying buttress (''arc-boutant'', arch buttress) is a specific form of buttress composed of an arch that extends from the upper portion of a wall to a pier of great mass, in order to convey lateral forces to the ground that are necessary to pu ...

es, making the building one of the first in Portugal to use this architectonic feature. This first Romanesque building has suffered many alterations but the general aspect of the façade has remained romanesque. Around 1333 the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

funerary chapel of ''João Gordo'' was added. João was a

Knight Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headqu ...

who worked for King Dinis I. His tomb is decorated with his recumbent figure and reliefs of the

Apostles An apostle (), in its literal sense, is an emissary, from Ancient Greek ἀπόστολος (''apóstolos''), literally "one who is sent off", from the verb ἀποστέλλειν (''apostéllein''), "to send off". The purpose of such sending ...

. Also from the Gothic period is the elegant cloister, built between the 14th and the 15th centuries during the reign of King John I, who married English Princess Philippa of Lancaster in Porto Cathedral in 1387. Porto Cathedral - Baroque loggia to the lateral façade

Porto Cathedral - Baroque loggia to the lateral façade

The external appearance of the cathedral was greatly altered during

times. In 1772 a new main portal substituted the old Romanesque original and the tower cupolas were altered. In 1736 Italian architect

Nicolau Nasoni Nicolau Nasoni (or originally Niccoló Nasoni, 2 June 1691 – 30 August 1773) was an Italian artist and architect mostly active in Portugal. He became one of the most influential figures in Portuguese Baroque architecture with his original and ...

added an elegant Baroque loggia to the lateral façade of the cathedral. During the

War of the Oranges The War of the Oranges ( pt, Guerra das Laranjas; french: Guerre des Oranges; es, Guerra de las Naranjas) was a brief conflict in 1801 in which Spanish forces, instigated by the government of France, and ultimately supported by the French mi ...

whilst the battle at Amarante was taking place a group of Spanish soldiers briefly took control of the cathedral before being overcome by the locals of the town. A marble plaque with a

Magnetite Magnetite is a mineral and one of the main iron ores, with the chemical formula Fe2+Fe3+2O4. It is one of the oxides of iron, and is ferrimagnetic; it is attracted to a magnet and can be magnetized to become a permanent magnet itself. With the ...

backing now hangs up behind the altar in order to remind everyone of those who died whilst regaining control of the chapel. The magnetite backing was chosen in order to remind those travelling near the cathedral by interfering with the direction in which their compass points, The interior was also altered during the baroque era. In one of the chapels there is a magnificent silver

altarpiece An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting ...

, built in the second half of the 17th century by Portuguese artists. Also in the 17th century the romanesque

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

(which had an

ambulatory The ambulatory ( la, ambulatorium, ‘walking place’) is the covered passage around a cloister or the processional way around the east end of a cathedral or large church and behind the high altar. The first ambulatory was in France in the 11 ...

) was torn down and a new one was built in baroque style, later decorated with new wall paintings by Nasoni and choir stalls. The altarpiece of the chapel, designed by ''Santos Pacheco'' and executed by ''Miguel Francisco da Silva'' between 1727 and 1729, is an important work of Portuguese Baroque. The three red marble holy-water fonts, supported by a statue, date from the 17th century. The

baptistery In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry ( Old French ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptisterium''; Greek , 'bathing-place, baptistery', from , baptízein, 'to baptize') is the separate centrally planned structure surrounding the baptismal ...

contains a bronze bas-relief by

António Teixeira Lopes António Teixeira Lopes (27 October 1866–21 June 1942) was a Portuguese sculptor. Life Teixeira Lopes was the son of sculptor José Joaquim Teixeira Lopes and started learning his art in his father's workshop. In 1882 he entered the Academ ...

, depicting the baptism of

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, names and titles), was ...

by John the Baptist. Azuelo Mural, Porto Cathedral

The South transept arm gives access to the

cloister, which is decorated with baroque

azulejo ''Azulejo'' (, ; from the Arabic ''al- zillīj'', ) is a form of Spanish and Portuguese painted tin-glazed ceramic tilework. ''Azulejos'' are found on the interior and exterior of churches, palaces, ordinary houses, schools, and nowadays, res ...

s by Valentim de Almeida (between 1729 and 1731). They depict the life of the Virgin Mary and Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''. The remains of the Early-Romanesque ambulatory contain a few sarcophagi. The terrace is decorated with tile panels by António Vidal. The coffered ceiling of the chapter house was painted with allegories of moral values by Pachini in 1737. Mass is celebrated at 11am each day.

References

Sources

*''Portugal/1 - Europa Romanica'', Gerhard N Graf, Ediciones Encuentro, Madrid, 1987
General Bureau for National Buildings and Monuments (Portugal)
{{Authority control Roman Catholic churches completed in 1737 Roman Catholic churches in Porto Roman Catholic cathedrals in Portugal Romanesque architecture in Portugal Gothic architecture in Portugal Baroque church buildings in Portugal History of Porto Azulejos in buildings in Portugal National monuments in Porto District 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Portugal

Overview

See also

References

Sources