The Porto Cathedral ( pt, Sé do Porto) is a

Roman Catholic 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 lette ...

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 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 ...

. 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 ...

'' 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 The Suebi (or Suebians, also spelled Suevi, Suavi) were a large group of Germanic peoples originally from the Elbe river region in what is now Germany and the Czech Republic. In the early Roman era they included many peoples with their own names ...

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 In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

. 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 t ...

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 interva ...

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

The Romanesque

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 ...

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 headq ...

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 Philippa of Lancaster ( pt, Filipa ; 31 March 1360 – 19 July 1415) was Queen of Portugal from 1387 until 1415 by marriage to King John I. Born into the royal family of England, her marriage secured the Treaty of Windsor and produced severa ...

in Porto Cathedral in 1387. 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 v ...

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 mil ...

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 o ...

, 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 11th ...

) was torn down and a new one was built in baroque style, later decorated with new wall paintings by

Nasoni The Nasoni are a Native American tribe from eastern Texas and southwestern Arkansas. History The Nasoni were divided into two bands. The Upper Nasoni, who lived along the Red River in the southwestern corner of Arkansas. 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 ...

John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...

The South

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...

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, resta ...

s by

Valentim de Almeida Valentim is both a Portuguese surname and a given name. Notable people with the name include: Surname * Evangelino Valentim (born 1984), Nigerian footballer * Valentim (footballer) (born 1977), full name Francisco de Assis Clarentino Valentim, Braz ...

(between 1729 and 1731). They depict the life of the Virgin Mary and

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

's ''Metamorphoses''. The remains of the Early-Romanesque ambulatory contain a few

sarcophagi A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a cadaver, corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from ...

. The terrace is decorated with tile panels by

António Vidal Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan language, Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 40 ...

. The coffered ceiling of the chapter house was painted with allegories of moral values by Pachini in 1737.

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

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