Porto Cathedral: A Romanesque Cathedral in Portugal
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Very High
- Country
- Portugal
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Portuguese
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page19 sections
History
Porto Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Porto, Portugal, whose present Romanesque building began in the second half of the twelfth century. Dedicated to the Assumption of Our Lady, it belongs to the Diocese of Porto and stands among the city’s oldest monuments and most important Romanesque buildings.
Early foundations and Romanesque construction
Porto was an episcopal centre during Suebi rule in the fifth and sixth centuries. The Suebi were a Germanic kingdom that controlled much of northwestern Iberia during that period. The cathedral occupies the site of an older chapel or hermitage founded in 1108 by Henry of Burgundy, a Burgundian nobleman associated with the establishment of the County of Portugal, and his wife.
Construction of the present cathedral began in the second half of the twelfth century. A pre-Romanesque church was still standing in 1147, while building work on the new structure continued through the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. The early Romanesque fabric was altered repeatedly, although the façade retained its overall Romanesque character.
Medieval additions
A Gothic funerary chapel for João Gordo was added around 1333. João Gordo was a Knight Hospitaller who served King Dinis I, the Portuguese monarch who ruled from 1279 to 1325. The Knights Hospitaller were a medieval Catholic military-religious order that began by caring for pilgrims and later took part in military and territorial activities.
The Gothic cloister was built during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, in the reign of King John I of Portugal. In 1387, John I married Philippa of Lancaster, an English princess, in Porto Cathedral.
Baroque transformation
The cathedral’s exterior was substantially remodelled during the Baroque period. Nicolau Nasoni, an Italian architect and decorative artist active in Portugal, added a Baroque loggia to the lateral façade in 1736. In 1772, a new main portal replaced the original Romanesque entrance, and the tower cupolas were altered. The Romanesque apse and its ambulatory were demolished in the seventeenth century and replaced by a Baroque apse.
Further changes took place in the twentieth century. The cathedral is a Portuguese National Monument and forms part of a UNESCO World Heritage property.
Conflict and commemoration
During the War of the Oranges, the 1801 conflict between Portugal and Spain, Spanish soldiers briefly seized the cathedral while the Battle of Amarante was taking place. Local forces later retook it. A memorial plaque behind the altar commemorates those who died in the recapture, and its magnetite backing was intended to evoke the disturbance of compass direction for travellers near the cathedral.
Remains
Porto Cathedral combines a largely undecorated and architecturally varied exterior with a Romanesque interior, Gothic additions, and Baroque decoration. Two square towers flank the façade, while the nave, aisles, cloister, chapels, apse, baptistery, and chapter house preserve elements from different stages of the cathedral’s development.
Façade and main structure
Towers and façade
The two square towers are each supported by two buttresses and crowned by a cupola. The façade brings together a Baroque porch and a Romanesque rose window set beneath a crenellated arch. Its mixture of forms gives the cathedral the appearance of a fortified church. The original Romanesque portal was replaced by a new main portal in 1772, and the tower cupolas were altered during the same period.
Nave and aisles
The narrow Romanesque nave is covered by a barrel vault and flanked by two aisles, each with a lower vault. Flying buttresses support the stone roof over the central aisle. A flying buttress is an external arched support that transfers the outward pressure of a vault or roof to a separate pier. This structural feature was used unusually early in Portugal.
Cloister and medieval memorials
João Gordo’s chapel
The Gothic funerary chapel of João Gordo contains his tomb. The tomb is decorated with a recumbent effigy and reliefs of the Apostles, linking the chapel’s architecture with the commemoration of the Knight Hospitaller buried within it.
Gothic cloister
Reached from the south transept, the Gothic cloister contains Baroque azulejos made by Valentim de Almeida between 1729 and 1731. Azulejos are glazed ceramic tiles widely used in Iberian architecture for decorative and narrative wall coverings. The panels depict religious and literary scenes, while the terrace is decorated with tile panels by António Vidal.
Early ambulatory remains
The remains of the early Romanesque ambulatory contain several sarcophagi. The ambulatory belonged to the cathedral’s Romanesque apse, which was demolished in the seventeenth century before the construction of the Baroque replacement.
Baroque interior and liturgical features
Baroque apse and choir
The replacement apse is Baroque and was later decorated with wall paintings by Nicolau Nasoni and choir stalls. Its surviving form reflects the major transformation of the cathedral’s eastern end after the earlier Romanesque apse and ambulatory were removed.
Chapel altarpiece
A chapel altarpiece designed by Santos Pacheco and executed by Miguel Francisco da Silva between 1727 and 1729 is an important work of Portuguese Baroque art.
Silver altarpiece and holy-water fonts
One chapel contains a large silver altarpiece made by Portuguese artists during the second half of the seventeenth century. Three red-marble holy-water fonts, each supported by a statue, also date from the seventeenth century.
Baptistery
The baptistery contains a bronze bas-relief by António Teixeira Lopes depicting the baptism of Christ by John the Baptist.
Chapter house ceiling
The coffered ceiling of the chapter house was painted by Pachini in 1737. Its decoration consists of allegories of moral values.
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