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The Convent of Our Lady of Mount Carmel ( pt, Convento da Ordem do Carmo) is a former
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...
located in the
civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...
of Santa Maria Maior,
municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
of
Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
,
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
. The medieval convent was ruined during the sequence of 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, Feast of All Saints, at around 09:40 local time. In combination with ...
, and the destroyed
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 ...
''Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel'' ( pt, Igreja do Carmo) on the southern facade of the convent is the main trace of the great earthquake still visible in the old city.


History

The monastery was founded in 1389 by the
Constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in criminal law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. A constable is commonly the rank of an officer within the police. Other peop ...
D.
Nuno Álvares Pereira D. Nuno Álvares Pereira, O. Carm. (; 24 June 1360 – 1 November 1431) was a Portuguese general of great success who had a decisive role in the 1383-1385 Crisis that assured Portugal's independence from Castile. He later became a mystic ...
(supreme military commander of the King),Pereira served King
John I John I may refer to: People * John I (bishop of Jerusalem) * John Chrysostom (349 – c. 407), Patriarch of Constantinople * John of Antioch (died 441) * Pope John I, Pope from 523 to 526 * John I (exarch) (died 615), Exarch of Ravenna * John I o ...
, commanding the Portuguese army in the decisive
Battle of Aljubarrota The Battle of Aljubarrota (; see Aljubarrota) was fought between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Crown of Castile on 14 August 1385. Forces commanded by King John I of Portugal and his general Nuno Álvares Pereira, with the support of English ...
(1385), in which the Portuguese guaranteed their independence by defeating the Castilian army.
from the small
Carmelite , image = , caption = Coat of arms of the Carmelites , abbreviation = OCarm , formation = Late 12th century , founder = Early hermits of Mount Carmel , founding_location = Mount Car ...
convent situated on lands acquired from his sister Beatriz Pereira and the admiral Pessanha. The reconstruction of the convent began sometime in 1393. In 1407, the presbytery and apse of the conventual church was completed, allowing the first liturgical acts in that year. By 1423 the residential cells were completed, allowing the Carmelites friars from Moura (southern Portugal) to inhabit the building, including Father Nuno de Santa Maria, the ''Constable'' D. Nuno Àlvares Pereira who donated his wealth to the convent and entered the convent. By 1551, the convent contained 70 clergy and 10 servants, paying land rents of approximately 2500 cruzados annually. In 1755, an earthquake off the coast of Portugal caused significant damage to the convent and completely destroyed the library, which housed approximately 5000 volumes. The 126 clerics at the time were forced to abandon the building, transferring initially to Cotovia, then to Campo Grande. Minor repairs to the monastery were carried out in 1800; roof tiles were repaired at this time. Ten years later, the monastic site was occupied by quarters of the ''Guarda Real de Polícia'' (''Police Royal Guard''), including eventually, the garrisoning of the sharpshooter battalion (in 1814) and the militia (in 1831), following painting its interiors. In 1834, there were repairs by the Public Works department to adapt the convent to receive the ''Tribunal do Juízo de Direito do 3º Distrito'' (''3rd District Judges' Law Court''). The church was never fully rebuilt and rented out as sawmilling shop (in June 1835), before the religious orders were expelled from the country. At that time the first and second companies of infantrymen for the municipal guard were stationed at the convent and, later, the first cavalry squadron in 1845. The buildings and site were donated in 1864 to the Association of Portuguese Archaeologists, which turned the ruined building into a museum. In 1902, a team was given the responsibility for restoring the facade along the ''Largo do Carmo''. Between 1911 and 1912, the walls around the Carmo Convent were reconstructed, with various arches built, under the guidance of architect Leonel Gaia. In 1955, permission was given to execute public projects to conserve and restore the facades and roofing of the garrison buildings, by the ''Delegação nas Obras de Edifícios de Cadeias das Guardas Republicana e Fiscal e das Alfândegas'' (''Republican Guard Delegation for Prison Buildings and Customshouses''). On 28 February 1969, an earthquake caused damage to the church nave. During the events of the
Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution ( pt, Revolução dos Cravos), also known as the 25 April ( pt, 25 de Abril, links=no), was a military coup by left-leaning military officers that overthrew the authoritarian Estado Novo regime on 25 April 1974 in Lisbo ...
the convent was encircled by military rebels, who opposed the Estado Novo regime. The regime's last President,
Marcelo Caetano Marcelo José das Neves Alves Caetano (; 17 August 1906 – 26 October 1980) was a Portuguese politician and scholar. He was the second and last leader of the Estado Novo after succeeding António Salazar. He served as prime minister from 196 ...
, and forces loyal to his regime were holed-up in the buildings, and eventually surrendered to the future democratic President
António de Spínola António Sebastião Ribeiro de Spínola (generally referred to as António de Spínola, ;This surname, however, was not accompanied by the grammatical nobiliary particle "de". 11 April 1910 – 13 August 1996) was a Portuguese military off ...
. The old convent was eventually transformed into the headquarters of the Republican Guard (''Guarda Republicana'').


Architecture

The Carmo Convent and its Church were built between 1389 and 1423 in the plain
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 ...
style typical for the mendicant religious orders. There are also influences from the
Monastery of Batalha The Monastery of Batalha ( pt, Mosteiro da Batalha) is a Dominican convent in the municipality of Batalha, in the district of Leiria, in the Centro Region of Portugal. Originally, and officially, known as the ''Monastery of Saint Mary of the V ...
, which had been founded by King John I and was being built at that same time. Compared to the other Gothic churches of the city, the Carmo Church was said to be the most imposing in its architecture and decoration. The church has a Latin cross
floorplan In architecture and building engineering, a floor plan is a technical drawing to Scale (ratio), scale, showing a view from above, of the relationships between rooms, spaces, traffic patterns, and other physical features at one level of a struct ...
. The main facade has a portal with several
archivolt An archivolt (or voussure) is an ornamental moulding or band following the curve on the underside of an arch. It is composed of bands of ornamental mouldings (or other architectural elements) surrounding an arched opening, corresponding to the ...
s and
capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
s decorated with vegetal and anthropomorphic motifs. The
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 ...
over the portal is partially destroyed. The south side of the church is reinforced by five flying buttresses, added in 1399 after the south wall collapsed during the construction work. The old convent, located to the right of the facade, was rebuilt in
neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
style in the early 20th century. The church interior has a
nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
with three
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 and an
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 ...
with a main chapel and four side chapels. The stone roof over the nave collapsed after the earthquake and was never rebuilt, and only the pointed arches between the pillars have survived. The Carmo Convent is located in the Chiado neighbourhood, on a hill overlooking the
Rossio The Rossio is the popular name of the King Pedro IV Square ( pt, Praça de D. Pedro IV) in the city of Lisbon, in Portugal. It is located in the Pombaline Downtown of Lisbon and has been one of its main squares since the Middle Ages. It has been ...
square and facing the
Lisbon Castle Saint George's Castle ( pt, Castelo de São Jorge; ) is a historic castle in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, located in the ''freguesia'' of Santa Maria Maior. Human occupation of the castle hill dates to at least the 8th century BC while t ...
hill. It is located in front of a quiet square (''Carmo Square''), very close to the
Santa Justa Lift The Santa Justa Lift ( pt, Elevador de Santa Justa, ), also called Carmo Lift ( pt, Elevador do Carmo, ), is an elevator, or lift, in the civil parish of Santa Justa, in the historic center of Lisbon, Portugal. Situated at the end of ''Rua de S ...
.


Museum

Nowadays the ruined Carmo Church is used as an archaeological museum (the Museu Arqueológico do Carmo or Carmo Archaeological Museum). The nave and apse of the Carmo Church are the setting for a small archaeological museum, with pieces from all periods of Portuguese history. The nave has a series of tombs, fountains, windows and other architectural relics from different places and styles. The old apse chapels are also used as exhibition rooms. One of them houses notable pre-historical objects excavated from a fortification near
Azambuja Azambuja () is a municipality in the Portuguese district of Lisbon, in the historical region of Ribatejo (and the sole municipality of within the district that does not belong to the historical province of Estremadura). The population in 2011 was ...
(3500–1500 BC). The group of Gothic tombs include that of ''Fernão Sanches'', a bastard son of King Dinis I, (early 14th century), decorated with scenes of
boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species is no ...
hunting, as well as the magnificent tomb of
King Ferdinand I Ferdinand I ( es, Fernando I; 10 March 1503 – 25 July 1564) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1556, King of Bohemia, Hungary, and Croatia from 1526, and Archduke of Austria from 1521 until his death in 1564.Milan Kruhek: Cetin, grad izbornog sabo ...
(reign 1367-1383), transferred to the museum from the Franciscan Convent of Santarém. Other notable exhibits include a statue of a 12th-century king (perhaps
Afonso Henriques Afonso I of PortugalOr 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 inf ...
),
Moorish The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or se ...
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, resta ...
s and objects from the
Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
and
Visigoth The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is kno ...
periods.


References


Notes


Sources

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External links


Site of the Association of Portuguese Archaeologists with information on the Museum (in Portuguese).
{{Authority control 1389 establishments in Europe 14th-century establishments in Portugal Religious buildings and structures completed in 1423 Roman Catholic churches completed in 1423 15th-century Roman Catholic church buildings Religious buildings and structures in Lisbon Museums in Lisbon Archaeological museums in Portugal Ruins in Portugal Convents in Portugal Gothic architecture in Portugal Christianity in Lisbon National monuments in Lisbon District