The Estaus Palace ( pt, Paço dos Estaus; ) in

Rossio Square 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 t ...

, in

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 ...

, was the headquarters of the

Portuguese Inquisition The Portuguese Inquisition (Portuguese: ''Inquisição Portuguesa''), officially known as the General Council of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Portugal, was formally established in Portugal in 1536 at the request of its king, John III. ...

. The original palace was built on the north side of the square around 1450 as lodging for foreign dignitaries and noblemen visiting Lisbon.

Portuguese Inquisition

In 1536, during the reign of King John III, the

Inquisition The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...

was installed in Portugal, and the palace eventually became the seat of the institution. The palace had a prison and tribunal where the accused of

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...

, witchcraft, and, particularly of secretly practising the Jewish faith (''

New Christians New Christian ( es, Cristiano Nuevo; pt, Cristão-Novo; ca, Cristià Nou; lad, Christiano Muevo) was a socio-religious designation and legal distinction in the Spanish Empire and the Portuguese Empire. The term was used from the 15th century ...

''), were subjected to trial,

persecution Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another individual or group. The most common forms are religious persecution, racism, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these term ...

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...

, and

execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the State (polity), state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to ...

. Rossio square and nearby St. Domingos square were frequently used as setting for public executions. The first official

auto-da-fé An ''auto-da-fé'' ( ; from Portuguese , meaning 'act of faith'; es, auto de fe ) was the ritual of public penance carried out between the 15th and 19th centuries of condemned heretics and apostates imposed by the Spanish, Portuguese, or Mex ...

took place in 1540. Among the thousands of people accused by the Inquisition and held in the prison of the Estaus are important personalities like historian

Damião de Góis Damião de Góis (; February 2, 1502January 30, 1574), born in Alenquer, Portugal, was an important Portuguese humanist philosopher. He was a friend and student of Erasmus. He was appointed secretary to the Portuguese factory in Antwerp in 1523 ...

, poet

Manuel Maria Barbosa du Bocage Manuel Maria Barbosa l'Hedois du Bocage (15 September 1765 – 21 December 1805), most often referred to simply as Bocage, was a Portuguese Neoclassic poet, writing at the beginning of his career under the pen name ''Elmano Sadino''. Biography ...

and dramatist

António José da Silva António José da Silva Coutinho (8 May 170518 October 1739) was a Portuguese dramatist born in colonial Brazil, known as "the Jew" (''O Judeu''). The Brazilian spelling of his first name is Antônio; António José da Silva Coutinho in Hebrew is ...

, nicknamed "the Jew", executed by the Inquisition in 1737. The Inquisition Palace was heavily damaged in the catastrophic

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 ...

, but was rebuilt under designs by

Carlos Mardel Carlos Mardel (born Martell Károly; Bratislava, Pressburg; c. 1695 - Lisbon; 8 September 1763) was a Hungarian people, Hungarian-Portuguese people, Portuguese military officer, engineer, and architect. Mardel is primarily remembered for his role ...

. This building was destroyed by fire in 1836. The Inquisition was not abolished in Portugal until 1821.

Teatro Nacional D. Maria II

Thanks to the efforts of writer

Almeida Garrett João Baptista da Silva Leitão de Almeida Garrett, 1st Viscount of Almeida Garrett (; 4 February 1799 – 9 December 1854) was a Portuguese poet, orator, playwright, novelist, journalist, politician, and a peer of the realm. A major promoter of ...

, the palace was replaced in 1842 by the

Teatro Nacional D. Maria II The Queen Maria II National Theatre ( pt, Teatro Nacional D. Maria II) is a theatre in Lisbon, Portugal. The historic theatre is one of the most prestigious Portuguese venues and is located in the Rossio square, in the centre of the city. His ...

, built to a Neoclassical design by

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

architect Fortunato Lodi. The theatre stands today on the site of the old Estaus Palace. A statue of

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

Portuguese playwright

Gil Vicente Gil Vicente (; c. 1465c. 1536), called the Trobadour, was a Portuguese playwright and poet who acted in and directed his own plays. Considered the chief dramatist of Portugal he is sometimes called the "Portuguese Plautus," often refe ...

is located over the

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

of the theatre. Ironically, some of Gil Vicente's plays had been censured by the Inquisition in the late 16th century.

References

General Bureau for National Buildings and Monuments (in Portuguese)

Giuseppe Marcocci, Toward a History of the Portuguese Inquisition Trends in Modern Historiography (1974-2009)
---- {{Authority control Portuguese Inquisition Neoclassical architecture in Portugal Palaces in Lisbon History of Lisbon Former buildings and structures in Portugal