The Cathedral of the Holy Saviour of Congo (; ) was a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

church built at the end of the 15th century in

M'banza-Kongo Mbanza Kongo (, , or , known as São Salvador in Portuguese language, Portuguese from 1570 to 1976; ), is the capital of Angola's northwestern Zaire Province with a population of 148,000 in 2014. Mbanza Kongo was the capital of the Kingdom of K ...

, the capital of the

Kingdom of Kongo The Kingdom of Kongo ( or ''Wene wa Kongo;'' ) was a kingdom in Central Africa. It was located in present-day northern Angola, the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, southern Gabon and the Republic of the Congo. At its gre ...

. It was the first

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

of the Diocese of Angola and Congo and one of the first Catholic

s in

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

and in what is now known as

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

. The construction as a simple church, which later would be a cathedral, was initiated between the 6th of May and the 6 of July 1491 under

João I of Kongo King João I (born Nzinga-a-Nkuwu; ca. 1440 – 1509) was the 5th ManiKongo of the Kingdom of Kongo () between 1470 and 1509. He voluntarily converted to Roman Catholicism. He was baptized on 3 May 1491 and took the Christian name of ''João'' ...

. Later it would be repaired and extended by 1534, under the reign of

Afonso I Dom Afonso IOr also ''Affonso'' (Archaic Portuguese-Galician) or ''Alphonso'' ( Portuguese-Galician) or ''Alphonsus'' (Latin version), sometimes rendered in English as ''Alphonzo'' or ''Alphonse'', depending on the Spanish or French influence ...

. By 1570, under the reign of

Álvaro I Álvaro or Álvar (, , ) is a Spanish, Galician and Portuguese male given name and surname of Germanic Visigothic origin. The patronymic surname derived from this name is Álvarez. Given name Artists *Álvaro Carrillo, Afro-Mexican songwriter. ...

, the East Jagas towns briefly took the city, burning the church, which was later rebuilt. It was elevated to the status of cathedral in 1596, already under the king

Álvaro II Álvaro or Álvar (, , ) is a Spanish, Galician and Portuguese male given name and surname of Germanic Visigothic origin. The patronymic surname derived from this name is Álvarez. Given name Artists *Álvaro Carrillo, Afro-Mexican songwriter. ...

. This same monarch tried in 1613, through

Pope Paul V Pope Paul V (; ) (17 September 1552 – 28 January 1621), born Camillo Borghese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 16 May 1605 to his death, in January 1621. In 1611, he honored Galileo Galilei as a mem ...

, that the king of Portugal took care of the cost of the maintenance of the bishops and canons of the cathedral. The city was sacked several times during the

Kongo Civil War The Kongo Civil War (1665–1709) was a war of succession between rival houses of the Kingdom of Kongo. The war waged throughout the middle of the 17th and 18th centuries pitting partisans of the House of Kinlaza against the House of Kimpanzu. ...

, that followed the

Battle of Mbwila Battle of Mbwila (also the Battle of Ambuila, Battle of Mbuila, or Battle of Ulanga) occurred on 29 October 1665 in which Portuguese forces defeated the forces of the Kingdom of Kongo and decapitated king António I of Kongo, also called Nv ...

of 1665, the first of them in 1668, and was abandoned in 1678, after being destroyed by the troops of the

pretender A pretender is someone who claims to be the rightful ruler of a country although not recognized as such by the current government. The term may often be used to either refer to a descendant of a deposed monarchy or a claim that is not legitimat ...

to the throne Pedro III, leaving the Cathedral in ruins.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holy Saviour Cathedral, Church Roman Catholic cathedrals in Angola Buildings and structures completed in 1491 Churches completed in the 1490s 15th-century Roman Catholic church buildings

See also

References