Afonso Álvares (also spelled Affonso Álvares) was the Master of Works for the Portuguese king,

Sebastian of Portugal Sebastian ( ; 20 January 1554 – 4 August 1578) was King of Portugal from 11 June 1557 to 4 August 1578 and the penultimate Portuguese monarch of the House of Aviz. He was the son of João Manuel, Prince of Portugal, and his wife, Joanna of Aus ...

, and he designed, amongst other structures, the Monastery of São Bento in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

in 1571, which was lost in the

1755 Lisbon earthquake The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon earthquake, impacted Portugal, the Iberian Peninsula, and Northwest Africa on the morning of Saturday, 1 November, All Saints' Day, Feast of All Saints, at around 09:40 local time. In ...

, and is now partially the site of the

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. He also designed the Fort of Santiago do Outão in 1572.

Work

He was the author of the design of the Leiria cathedral, built between 1551 and 1574 (this temple follows the typology drawn by Miguel de Arruda, father-in-law of Afonso Álvares, for the new cathedrals built during the reign of King João IIIMENDEIROS, José Filipe. ''Património Religioso de Estremoz''. Estremoz: 2001. p. 159) and possibly the cathedral of Portalegre, begun in 1556. He was the architect of the Church of São Salvador de Veiros, in Veiros, in the municipality of Estremoz, erected by the Order of Avis, under license from Cardinal D. Henrique, in 1559. He held the post of "master of the works of fortifications", and was responsible for the works of modernization and expansion of the Fort of Santiago do Outão in the bar of the river Sado, in Setúbal (1572). The architectural innovations focused on the construction of a bulwark and a terrace, where cannons could be installed. Between 1571 and 1580, he succeeded Francisco de Arruda in directing the second stage of the Amoreira Aqueduct works in Elvas.
Aqueduto da Amoreira
' na base de dados do DGPC At the end of the century he made the layout of the Monastery of S. Bento da Saúde. He was also the author of the project to enlarge the Church of São Roque in Lisbon, which would evolve into the Mannerist style. Afonso Álvares accompanied the work from 1566 until 1575, when he was replaced by his possible nephew, Baltazar Álvares. Under his guidance a single-nave church was conceived,
Casa Professa de São Roque / Igreja e Museu de São Roque
na base de dados SIPA'' a project favored by Cardinal Dom Henrique.Toledo, Benedito de Lima. (2012). Esplendor do Barroco Luso-brasileiro. São Paulo, Ateliê Editorial, pp. 67-68.

References

Sources

*O Recreio Nº 2, Lisbon Imprensa Nacional, February 1839, by Luiz Duarte Villela da Silva Portuguese architects 16th-century Portuguese people Portuguese engineers Year of death unknown {{Portugal-architect-stub