Portuguese Architecture

When elected at Thomar in 1580, Philip II. of Spain had sworn to govern Portugal only through Portuguese ministers, a promise which he seems to have kept. He was fully alive to...

The expulsion of the Spaniards--Long war: final success of Portugal and recovered prosperity--Mafra founded by Dom João V.--Compared with the Escorial--Designed by a German--Pal...

To Dom Manoel, who died in 1521, had succeeded his son Dom João III. The father had been renowned for his munificence and his splendour, the son cared more for the Church and fo...

In 1057 Fernando, king of Castile, Leon and Galicia crossed the Douro, took Lamego, where the lower part of the tower is all that is left of the romanesque cathedral, and is ind...

Portugal, like all the other Christian kingdoms of the Peninsula, having begun in the north, first as a county or march land subject to the king of Galicia or of Leon, and later...

Belem or Bethlehem lies close to the shore, after the broad estuary of the Tagus has again grown narrow, about four miles from the centre of Lisbon, and may best be reached by o...

In Portugal the twelfth century is marked by a very considerable activity in building, but the thirteenth, which in France and England saw Gothic architecture rise to a height o...

Affonso V., the African, had died and been succeeded by his son João II. in 1487. João tried, not without success, to play the part of Louis XI. of France and by a judicious cho...

If João de Castilho and his brother Diogo were really natives of one of the Basque provinces, they might rightly be included among the foreign artists who played such an importa...

Towards the end of the fourteenth century came the most important and critical years that Portugal had yet known. Dom Pedro, dying after a reign of only ten years, was succeeded...

Vasco da Gama set sail from Lisbon in July 1497 with a small fleet to try and make his way to India by sea, and he arrived at Calicut on the Malabar coast nearly a year later, i...

It is now time to turn back for a century and a half and to speak of the traces left by the Moors of their long occupation of the country. Although they held what is now the nor...

During the last ten or fifteen years of the fifteenth century there was great activity in building throughout almost the whole country, but it now becomes almost impossible to t...

Besides building Batalha, King João dedicated the spoils he had taken at Aljubarrota to the church of Nossa Senhora da Oliviera at Guimarães, which he rebuilt from the designs o...

Very quickly the fame of these French workers spread across the country, and they or their pupils were employed to design tombs, altar-pieces, or chapels outside of Coimbra. Per...

Little had been done to the monastery of Batalha since the death of Dom Duarte left his great tomb-chapel unfinished. Dom Affonso v., bent on wasting the lives of the bravest of...

Above the entablature of the lower order there are three windows in the middle flanked by Ionic pilasters and surmounted by pediments, while in the tower are large round-headed...

The old palace at Cintra is perhaps the only complete building to the north of the Tagus designed and carried out by Moorish workmen scarcely, if at all, influenced by what the...

In the last chapter the most important works of Terzi and of his pupils have been described, and it is now necessary to go back and tell of various buildings which do not confor...

If it was only in the south that Moorish masons built in stone or brick, their carpenters had a much wider range. The wooden ceilings of as late as the middle of the seventeenth...

This earlier style did not, however, last very long. Even before the death of Dom João more strictly classical forms began to come in from Italy, brought by some of the many pup...

Diogo de Torralva and Claustro dos Filippes, Thomar--Miranda de Douro--Reigns of Dom Sebastião and of the Cardinal King Henry not noted for much building--Evora, Graça and Unive...

Vasco da Gama's successful voyage to Calicut, 1497--Other expeditions lead to discovery of Brazil--Titles conferred on Dom Manoel by Pope Alexander VI.--Ormuz taken--Strange for...

Growth of Christian kingdom under Affonso Henriques--His vow--Capture of Santarem, of Lisbon--Cathedral, Lisbon, related to Church of S. Sernin, Toulouse--Ruined by Great Earthq...

The thirteenth century poor in buildings--The Franciscans--São Francisco Guimarães--Santarem--Santa Maria dos Olivaes at Thomar--_Cf._ aisle windows at Leça do Balio--Inactivity...

Dom Fernando and Dona Leonor Telles--Her wickedness and unpopularity--Their daughter, Dona Brites, wife of Don Juan of Castile, rejected--Dom João I. elected king--Battle of Alj...

Torre de São Viente built to defend Lisbon--Turrets and balconies not Indian--Vasco da Gama sails from Belem--The great monastery built as a thankoffering for the success of his...

João III. cared more for the Church than for anything else--Decay begins--Later additions to Alcobaça--Batalha, Sta. Cruz--Thomar, Order of Christ reformed--Knights become regul...

Few buildings older than the re-conquest--But many built for Christians by Moors--The Palace, Cintra--Originally country house of the Walis--Rebuilt by Dom João I.--Plan and det...

Nossa Senhora da Oliveira Guimarães rebuilt as a thankoffering--Silver reredos captured at Aljubarrota--The cathedral, Guarda--Its likeness to Batalha--Nave later--Nuno Alvarez...

João II. continues the policy of Prince Henry the Navigator--Bartholomeu Diaz, Vasco da Gama--Accession of Dom Manoel--Discovery of route to India, and of Brazil--Great wealth o...

The oldest buildings are in the North--Very rude and simple--Three types--Villarinho--São Miguel, Guimarães--Cedo Feita, Oporto--Gandara, Boelhe, etc., are examples of the simpl...

Tomb at Thomar of the Bishop of Funchal--Tomb in Graça, Santarem--São Marcos, founded by Dona Brites de Menezes--Tomb of Fernão Telles--Rebuilt by Ayres da Silva, her grandson--...

Vianna do Castello, Misericordia--Beja, São Thiago--Azeitão, São Simão--Evora, Cartuxa--Beja, Misericordia--Oporto, Nossa Senhora da Serra do Pilar--Sheltered Wellington before...

Coimbra, Sta. Cruz, founded by Dom Affonso Henriques, rebuilt by Dom Manoel, first architect Marcos Pires--Gregorio Lourenço clerk of the works--Diogo de Castilho succeeds Marco...

Dom Duarte's tomb-house unfinished--Work resumed by Dom Manoel--The two Matheus Fernandes, architects--The Pateo--The great entrance--Meaning of 'Tanyas Erey'--Piers in Octagon-...