beneath the Museu Machado de Castro.
Few physical traces remain of the Germanic peoples who flowed in after the Romans, although the Chapel of São Frutuoso in Braga is of Visigoth origin. The pretty town of Mertola in the Alentejo region was briefly the capital of an Arab kingdom. Its mosque was converted into the parish church but still offers the best example of Islamic architecture in Portugal. Several medieval castles also bear witness to Portugal’s Muslim past, notably that in Silves and the hilltop Castelo dos Mouros in Sintra.
As the reconquista gathered pace in the 10th century, churches in the European Romanesque style sprang up across northern Portugal. The cathedrals of Braga and Lisbon date from this time, but Sé Velha in Coimbra is where the Romanesque style is at its purest, with fewer later additions. The Rates Monastery near Póvoa de Varzim is one of the oldest Romanesque buildings. Others can be discovered along the Romanesque Route (Rota do Românico) linking over 50 churches and other monuments in the hills east of Porto. The granite Domus Municipalis (municipal house) in Bragança is a rare example of civic architecture to survive from the period.
Portugal’s most remarkable Romanesque building forms the core of the Convent of Christ in Tomar. The circular 12th-century church was built by the Knights Templar who had their base here. They copied it from the ancient churches in Jerusalem that the knights had visited during the Crusades. The whole magnificent complex, which includes later medieval and Renaissance additions, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Gothic Era The history of the Gothic style in Portugal is bookended by two fabulous monasteries, built just 25km (14 miles) apart. Alcobaça Monastery was built in the 12th century, its white stone arches following the pure, unadorned style imported from France by the Cistercian order of monks. Although the church’s exterior was significantly modified in the baroque era, the interior remains a hugely atmospheric medieval monument. Constructed 2 centuries later to celebrate a famous victory over invading Spaniards, Batalha Monastery is a flamboyant example of the ornate late Gothic style, bristling with statues, spires, and richly decorated arches. Lit by the setting sun, its limestone facade glows golden. Both monasteries are now UNESCO Sites.
Between these two masterpieces, major Gothic churches were built all around the country; the Church of São Francisco in Porto, Évora Cathedral, and the ruined Carmo convent in Lisbon are among the best. However, Santarém, high on the north bank of the Tagus River, holds the title “capital of Gothic,” thanks to the sheer number of medieval churches there.
Portugal’s Unique Manueline Style Named for King Manuel I, the monarch behind Portugal’s Era of Discoveries, the Manueline style is unique to Portugal. It combines elements of medieval Gothic and the new ideas of the Renaissance, but adds elements inspired by Portugal’s adventures on the high seas. Maritime motives become an integral part of the architecture—shells, ropes, branches of coral, and navigational instruments, as well as exotic touches brought back from distant lands.
Best-known among the Manueline monuments are the iconic Torre de Belém fortress guarding the Tagus River in Lisbon’s Belém neighborhood and the neighboring Jerónimos Monastery, a spectacular building containing the tombs of explorer Vasco da Gama, poets Luís de Camões and Fernando Pessoa, as well as King Manuel himself.
Other fine examples of the Manueline style can be found in Tomar’s Convent of Christ, the Royal Palace in Sintra, and the Monastery of Jesus in Setúbal.
The Discoveries period also saw a flowering of Portuguese painting. The country’s most cherished artwork is Nuno Gonçalves’ giant Panels of Saint Vincent, which contains portraits of 60 people, a cross-section of 15th-century society, from nobility (including Henry the Navigator) to friars and fishermen. It alone justifies a visit to Lisbon’s Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga.
Another renowned painter of the Discoveries period is Grão Vasco, best known for his sumptuous religious works. Many are displayed in the excellent Grão Vasco museum in his hometown of Viseu.
Baroque GOLD The drama and exuberance of the baroque style were embraced across the Catholic world in response to austere Protestant values. Nowhere was this truer than in Portugal and its empire, where the wealth pouring in from Brazilian gold fields in the 17th and 18th centuries fueled a spending spree on ornate churches and palaces.
Two specifically Portuguese art forms thrived in this period: talha dourada (wood carving gilded with gold leaf), and the glazed ceramic tiles known as azulejos. The combination of the intricately carved altars gleaming with gold and the soft blue-and-white tiles make church interiors of this period uniquely beautiful. Wonderful examples can be found in the São Roque church in Lisbon, the church of Santa Clara in Porto, or the tiny church of São Lourenço de Almancil in the Algarve. Elsewhere, baroque architects demand an upward gaze: The 75-meter (246-ft.) tower of the Clérigos church is a symbol of the city of Porto, while Braga and Lamego both have hilltop churches reached by monumental stairways.
A rich handicraft tradition
Aside from high art, Portugal retains a wealth of regional handicraft traditions. The small town of Arraiolos in the Alentejo is famed for carpets, woven from local wool into designs that reflect the flowers of the region. Hand-painted pottery from Coimbra is refined and colorful, based on designs from the 15th and 16th centuries. Artists around Barcelos in the Minho have always produced ceramic figures: demons, saints, and the rooster, which has become a national symbol. Delicate golden filigree jewelry is a specialty of Viana do Castelo, while Castelo Branco is famed for silk embroidery and Madeira for lacework. Many countries produce decorated ceramic tiles, but in few places are they so central to the folk-art tradition as azulejos are to Portugal. They appear on buildings ranging from ancient churches to brand-new subway stations. Even the sidewalks can be works of art. The calçada portuguesa technique uses small cubes of white and black limestone to make patterned pavements that are found around Lisbon and other Portuguese cities—Rossio square in the heart of the capital is one fine example.
Secular art also thrived in the baroque era, including the Queluz Royal Palace, the Palácio de Mateus vila near Vila Real, and the splendid Joanina Library in Coimbra University. Putting all the others into shade, however, is the enormous Mafra Palace, built by King João V, north of Lisbon. It covers an area larger than seven football fields, filled with sumptuous ballrooms, churches, a hospital, and a library lined with 36,000 volumes. The 4 decades of construction feature prominently in Baltasar and Blimunda, one of the best novels by Nobel Prize–winning author José Saramago.
Portugal’s greatest sculptor emerged during this period—Joaquim Machado de Castro (1731–1822), whose works grace many churches and plazas, including the statue of King Jose I on horseback in the center of Lisbon’s Praça do Comércio.
RECONSTRUcTION & ROMANCE After the excesses of the baroque era, the Marquis of Pombal imposed his sober-minded architectural vision after the great earthquake of 1755. The prime minister ordered the rebuilding of Lisbon’s Baixa district in an orderly grid pattern of solid, unadorned blocks. In the Algarve, an entire town, Vila Real de Santo António, was laid out in this Pombaline style.
Architecture in the 19th century looked backward. Ancient Athens inspired neoclassical buildings like Lisbon’s Dona Maria National Theater or the São Bento palace, which houses the parliament. Other styles looked closer to home. The sumptuous Arab Room in Porto’s Stock Exchange is a gilded Moorish fantasy. Nostalgia for the Age of Discovery saw the development of a neo-Manueline fashion represented by Lisbon’s Rossio station, or the delightfully romantic Buçaco Palace, a royal residence that’s now a luxury hotel surrounded by lush forest. The Romantic movement in Portuguese architecture reached its peak with the completion in 1854 of the mountaintop Pena Palace in Sintra, a multicolored potpourri of styles devised by Ferdinand, the German prince married to Queen Maria II.
Portuguese Art’s armenian connection
Lisbon’s
