Viseu Cathedral is the

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 ...

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

seat of the city of

Viseu Viseu () is a city and municipality in the Centro Region of Portugal and the capital of the district of the same name, with a population of 100,000 inhabitants, and center of the Viseu Dão Lafões intermunipical community, with 267,633 inhabi ...

, in

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 church started being built in the 12th century and is the most important historical monument of the town. It is currently a mix of architectural styles, specially from the

Manueline The Manueline ( pt, estilo manuelino, ), occasionally known as Portuguese late Gothic, is the sumptuous, composite Portuguese architectural style originating in the 16th century, during the Portuguese Renaissance and Age of Discoveries. Manuel ...

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 ...

and

Mannerist Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, ...

periods. The cathedral is located on a large and harmonious square, beside the old Bishop's Palace (now the Grão Vasco Museum) and in front of the Misericórdia Church of Viseu.

History

Archaeological surveys have indicated that the site of Viseu Cathedral was occupied by an

Early Christian Early Christianity (up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325) spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewish d ...

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

built during the times of Sueve domination (5th-6th centuries). Christian life in the city was disturbed in the 8th century with the arrival of Moorish invaders, who dominated Viseu until

Ferdinand I of León Ferdinand I ( 1015 – 24 December 1065), called the Great (''el Magno''), was the count of Castile from his uncle's death in 1029 and the king of León after defeating his brother-in-law in 1037. According to tradition, he was the first to have h ...

reconquered it in 1058. The bishopric seat was reestablished in the mid-12th century, when the current cathedral building started being erected, but little remains from this early Romanesque building except for some architectural details. The church was greatly enlarged in the following centuries of the Middle Ages, assuming its present configuration as a 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 ...

d building with three Eastern chapels. Some

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 ...

chapels in the

cloisters A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against ...

also date from this period. From an artistic point of view, the most important building campaigns took place in the 16th century. Bishop Diogo Ortiz de Vilhena encharged architect

João de Castilho João de Castilho (1470–1552), also known as ''Juan de Castillo'' (Merindad de Trasmiera, Cantabria, c. 1470 — c. 1552)'','' was a Castilian and a notable Iberian architect born in Castillo Siete Villas, actually Arnuero (Cantabria). He ...

with the construction of the stone roof of the church and a new façade, which were finished around 1513. Date from this time the rib vaulting of the aisles with decorative ribs in the shape of twisted ropes and knots, a masterpiece of the

Manueline style The Manueline ( pt, estilo manuelino, ), occasionally known as Portuguese late Gothic, is the sumptuous, composite Portuguese architectural style originating in the 16th century, during the Portuguese Renaissance and Age of Discoveries. Manuel ...

. Around 1539, bishop Miguel da Silva entrusted the building of a new

cloister A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...

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 Francisco da Cremona, who designed a fine

structure. Also in the first half of the 16th century the cathedral was enriched with several series of painted

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 ...

s commissioned to leading artists of the time, the most celebrated of which was Vasco Fernandes. These altarpieces were later disassembled but can be seen nowadays in the Grão Vasco Museum, located beside the cathedral. The old

main chapel was replaced by a new one in the early 17th century. In 1635, a tower and the

style

portal Portal often refers to: * Portal (architecture), an opening in a wall of a building, gate or fortification, or the extremities (ends) of a tunnel Portal may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * ''Portal'' (series), two video games ...

were destroyed during a storm, and a new one was entrusted to

Salamanca Salamanca () is a city in western Spain and is the capital of the Province of Salamanca in the autonomous community of Castile and León. The city lies on several rolling hills by the Tormes River. Its Old City was declared a UNESCO World Heritag ...

architect João Moreno. The current façade, in the shape of a

, dates from this time. In the

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 ...

period the cathedral was enriched with an organ,

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

s, altarpieces and tiles (''

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'').

Art & architecture

Viseu Cathedral is a

Latin cross A Latin cross or ''crux immissa'' is a type of cross in which the vertical beam sticks above the crossbeam, with the three upper arms either equally long or with the vertical topmost arm shorter than the two horizontal arms, and always with a mu ...

church with a three-

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 ...

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 ...

and three Eastern chapels. The main façade is flanked by two towers. The outer, lateral walls of the church have a heavy, menacing appearance, typical of Portuguese mediaeval cathedrals, being partially decorated with

merlon A merlon is the solid upright section of a battlement (a crenellated parapet) in medieval architecture or fortifications.Friar, Stephen (2003). ''The Sutton Companion to Castles'', Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 202. Merlons are sometimes ...

s. The South (clock) tower is still of mediaeval origin, while the North tower had to be rebuilt in the 17th century after a storm. The storm also destroyed the Manueline façade, which was rebuilt around 1635. The three-storey façade resembles a Mannerist altarpiece and is decorated with niches harbouring statues of the Four Evangelists, as well as the Holy Mary and Saint Theotonius. In the interior, all aisles are of approximately equal height, resembling a

hall church A hall church is a church with a nave and aisles of approximately equal height, often united under a single immense roof. The term was invented in the mid-19th century by Wilhelm Lübke, a pioneering German art historian. In contrast to an archi ...

. The stone rib vaulting is supported by massive pillars and was built between 1505 and 1513, being an outstanding example of

architecture. Some ribs of the roof (

lierne Lierne is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Namdalen region, and it is the largest municipality by area in Trøndelag. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Sandvika. Other villages include ...

s) are shaped like twisted ropes and knots, typical Manueline decorative motifs. The main chapel was rebuilt in Mannerist style and features a gilt-woodwork Baroque-Rococo altarpiece designed by famed sculptor Santos Pacheco, who was also responsible for the main altarpiece of

Porto Cathedral The Porto Cathedral ( pt, Sé do Porto) is a Roman Catholic church located in the historical centre of the city of Porto, Portugal. It is one of the city's oldest monuments and one of the most important local Romanesque architecture, Romanesque m ...

. The altarpiece incorporates a Holy Mary statue from the 14th century and was carved between 1729 and 1733 by Francisco Machado. The choir stalls were built by Gaspar Ferreira after 1733. To the South side of the cathedral there is a two-storey cloister originally built in the Middle Ages but greatly modified in the 16th-17th centuries. The ground floor is a typical Italian Renaissance work, built around 1539 by Francisco Cremona. The upper storey is a Mannerist gallery of the 17th century. The cloisters incorporate some Gothic chapels.

References

*Portuguese Institute for Architectural Heritag

*General Bureau for National Buildings and Monuments (Portugal

*History of Viseu in the Municipality websit

{{Authority control Roman Catholic cathedrals in Portugal, Viseu Manueline architecture Gothic architecture in Portugal Mannerist architecture in Portugal Renaissance architecture in Portugal National monuments in Viseu District Churches in Viseu District

History

Art & architecture

See also

References