IGREJA DE SANTA ENGRÁCIA

Description

Essentials about the Igreja de Santa Engrácia in brief

The Igreja de Santa Engrácia (Church of Saint Engrácia) in the São Vicente district is a special feature among Lisbon’s churches. The large baroque church from the 17th century was – very untypical for Portugal – never used as a place of worship and today serves as the “National Pantheon” (pt. “Panteão Nacional”), where great personalities of Portuguese history have their final resting place.

The history of the Igreja de Santa Engrácia

The current building of the Igreja de Santa Engrácia replaced several churches that existed before in the same place, also named after the 12th century martyr of Braga, Saint Engrácia. The first church was donated by Princess Maria, daughter of the Portuguese King Manuel I, in the late 16th century. Construction of the current church building finally began in 1681, after the previous buildings had partially collapsed. The construction was directed by João Antunes, royal architect and one of the most famous baroque architects in Portugal at that time.

Construction of the new church continued until 1712, when Antunes died. However, the then King João V was no longer interested in the new church and preferred to invest the tax money in the gigantic Convent of Mafra. The church therefore remained unfinished until the 20th century. Finally, during the period of dictatorship in the first half of the 20th century, Portuguese politics decided to complete the church. By 1966, the Igreja de Santa Engrácia was actually completed and consecrated.

The architecture of the Igreja de Santa Engrácia

The architect João Antunes had presented an architectural design for the Igreja de Santa Engrácia that was unique in Portugal up to that time. The church with its oversized central dome has a symmetrical ground plan in the shape of a Greek cross. At each corner of the church are prism-like towers, but their tops were never completed, so that today there is a viewing platform on the four towers around the central dome.

The facade of the church was designed by the famous Italian Baroque architect Francesco Borromini. The main front of the church facing west has a large portico with three archways, each adorned by a statue. The interior of the church is dominated by the arches and the naves of the crossing. Both the floor and the walls of the church are decorated with marble structures of different colors.

The National Pantheon in the Igreja de Santa Engrácia

After its completion in 1966, the government under leader Salazar decided to transform the church into a national hall of fame, following the example of the Panthéon in Paris. For this purpose, some people were subsequently exhumed to be buried in the Igreja de Santa Engrácia. Among others, the presidents Manuel José de Arriaga, Teófilo Braga, Sidónio Pais and Óscar Carmona, the general and opposition presidential candidate Humberto Delgado, the writers João de Deus, Almeida Garrett, Guerra Junqueiro and Aquilino Ribeiro as well as the fado singer Amália Rodrigues and the soccer player Eusébio have found their final resting place here.

In addition, in the National Pantheon there are still some cenotaphs for “heroes of Portuguese history” such as the poet Luís de Camões, the seafarers Pedro Álvares Cabral and Vasco da Gama, the military and politician Afonso de Albuquerque, the army commander Nuno Álvares Pereira and Henry the Navigator, the initiator of the Portuguese voyages of discovery.

Incidentally, since August 2003, the Santa Cruz Monastery in Coimbra also has the status of “Panteão Nacional”, since the first two Portuguese kings, Afonso Henriques and Sancho I, are buried there. Since then, therefore, there are two buildings in Portugal that have equal status in the designation of “Panteão Nacional”.