Catedral Metropolitana de Nossa Senhora da Conceição

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Nossa Senhora da Conceição , Maputo Catholic Cathedral

The Catedral Metropolitana de Nossa Senhora da Conceição ( Metropolitan Cathedral of the Conception ), often just called "Sé" or "Catedral", is a Catholic church on the Praça da Independência in the Central district of the Mozambican capital Maputo . The church, built between 1936 and 1944, was designed by the engineer Marcial Simões de Freitas e Costa . The church is the seat of the Archdiocese of Maputo .

history

The cathedral as part of a monumental square

With the steady growth of the port city of Lourenço Marques , meanwhile also the capital of the colony of Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique), the Portuguese colonial government and the city administration in the mid-1920s wanted more weighty places and buildings for the city, which was perceived as "modern" and "progressive" . In the city's development plan in 1931, the administration designed a monumental square ( Praça Mouzinho de Albuquerque , today Praça da Independência ) with a new town hall and a cathedral to be built.

The redevelopment of the urban area began in 1935 when the colonial government secured funding for the square with the Mouzinho de Albuquerques statue and the city council approved plans for the construction of a new cathedral. In particular, financial bottlenecks due to the difficult economic situation in the mother country and aesthetic discussions in the administration delayed the planning. Funding for the cathedral was mainly achieved through donations and municipal bonds. The square was built until 1940, at the same time in connection with the straightening of Avenida Aguiar (today Avenida Samora Machel ) and the link to Praça 7 de Março (today Praça 25 de Junho ).

Inspiration in Lisbon and Le Raincy

Historically, the cathedral and the neighboring square are closely linked. Today there is a statue of Samora Machel instead of a statue of the military man Mouzinho de Albuquerque

The foundation stone for the construction of the church, according to an inscription inside the narthex , was laid by the then bishop of Mozambique and Cape Verde, D. Rafael Maria da Asunção on June 28, 1936. The Portuguese engineer and then head of the railways of Lourenço Marques, Marcial Freitas e Costa , designed the church building pro bono for the Archdiocese of Lourenço Marques. His design was based strongly on current movements in architecture in Europe in a simple style and used new building materials such as concrete and cement. He was inspired by buildings such as the Notre-Dame du Raincy in Le Raincy (1921–1923) by Auguste Perret and the Lisbon Igreja de Nossa Senhora de Fátima (1934–1938) by Pardal Monteiro . The simplicity and the choice of new building materials was also justified with financial arguments.

While the town hall and the plaza followed traditionalist, neo-classical architectural styles, Freitas e Costa broke with its modern design. The building of a classical Gothic church was discussed in advance within the city administration, but was given up due to financial difficulties. Despite the discussions, the city administration and the colonial government understood the presentation of both styles - traditionalism and modernity - at the square not as a contradiction, but as a “connection of past and future” and “proof of the civilizing mission” of the colonial rulers.

inauguration

View of the square in the early 1990s with the cathedral and town hall

After eight years of construction, the church was consecrated on August 15, 1944 by the Lisbon bishop Manuel Gonçalves Cerejeira , who also consecrated the Igreja da Nossa Senhora de Fátima in Namaacha on the same trip . The neighboring town hall was completed in 1947. With the statue of Mouzinho de Albuquerques erected in 1940, the square was completed, which was seen in the cultural context as a ceremonial place and linked the state (in the form of the town hall) and faith (in the form of the cathedral). In the years that followed, the square served as a regular site for state-organized marches and ceremonies.

Later course

With the inauguration, the Archbishopric of Lourenço Marques and Archbishop Teodósio Clemente de Gouveia took its new seat. In the following decades, relatively little changed in the church and the design of the square. It was not until Mozambique gained independence in 1975 that the neighboring square lost the colonial statue, but the church remained untouched by the influences of the socialist Frelimo party .

Since 2011 the building has been in the preselection for a list of monuments for the city of Maputo. The building is registered with the number 31682 in the Portuguese monument database Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico , which also includes monuments to former Portuguese colonies.

Architectural description

Exterior

The church has a plan in the form of a Latin cross with only one nave. There is a long and monumental staircase in front of the church itself, the facade of the building is symmetrical and has a stepped shape that leads to the highest point of the church, the 61 meter high tower. The church is glazed on both sides, with high, massive buttresses separating the glass surfaces from each other and representing a reference to Gothic church architecture. The narthex can be reached via three massive, metal entrance gates, which are decorated with geometrical shapes and crosses .

inner space

Interior of the cathedral

The front part of the eight-part, 66-meter-long, 16-meter-high and 16-meter-wide nave is filled with the narthex , where a spiral staircase gives access to the tower, while the rear part is filled with small side chapels. The walls and ceilings of the church are formed by concrete steel girders and arches, the spaces between them are filled with cement, which creates a decorative pattern through struts. The roof in the form of a barrel vault is concreted. The floor and the lower part of the side walls are clad with dark granite, which creates a strong contrast to the otherwise white interior of the church. Between the granite cladding and windows, there are 14 1.80 × 0.80 meter large metal panels of the Way of the Cross halfway up .

In front of the rood screen there is a pulpit on each side , which can be reached through the transepts . The two transepts are symmetrical to each other, in one nave there is a small stone altar with a stone wall figure. In the other nave there is a wooden triptych . The end of the ship forms a larger wall niche, which is also clad with black granite. There are three large wall windows above this.

The works of art in the church are by the artists Francisco Franco de Sousa , António Lino , José Simões de Almeida d. J. (Sacred Heart statue), Leopoldo de Almeida (Way of the Cross and image of St. Philomena ) and António Maia Ribeiro .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Gerbert Verheij: Monumentalidade e espaço público em Lourenço Marques nas décadas de 1930 e 1940: Dois casos de estudo . Ed .: Faculdade de Ciências Socias e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Lisbon September 2011, p. 72 ff . (available online as pdf ).
  2. ↑ a b c d e Tiago Lourenço: Catedral de Lourenço Marques / Catedral de Maputo / Catedral de Nossa Senhora da Conceição. In: Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico (SIPA). 2011, accessed December 22, 2014 (Portuguese, with photos).
  3. ↑ João Francisco dos Santos: Guia da Catedral de Lourenço Marques . Imprensa Nacional de Moçambique, Lourenço Marques 1944, p. 54 (Portuguese, quoted from André Renga Faria Ferreira: Obras públicas em Moçambique: inventário da produção arquitectónica executada entre 1933 e 1961, Master's thesis at the University of Coimbra, Coimbra, 2006 (available online as a pdf ) - Tudo indicava que se devia adoptar o cimento armado, e aceitar as normas estéticas correspondentes. Consequentemente, as linhas do edifício teriam de ser modernas. Havia já numerosas igrejas assim concebidas, desde a Finlândia a Marrocos, e principalmente em França e na Alemanha. Na Metrópole do arquitópole., Pardal Monteiro, acha-se agora concluída a igreja de Nossa Senhora de Fátima […]. A opinião do angheiro Freitas e Costa era que se devia adoptar aqui, e com a maioria da razão, critério idêntico.). pdf ( Memento of the original from December 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / estudogeral.sib.uc.pt
  4. ↑ a b José Manuel Fernandes: Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Conceição (Catedral). In: Património de Influência Portuguesa (HPIP). Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, October 18, 2012, accessed December 22, 2014 (Portuguese).
  5. ^ Santuário Nossa Senhora de Fátima vale também pela sua história. In: O País. May 17, 2010, accessed December 22, 2014 (Portuguese).
  6. ↑ Gerbert Verheij: Monumentalidade e espaço público em Lourenço Marques nas décadas de 1930 e 1940: Dois casos de estudo . Ed .: Faculdade de Ciências Socias e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Lisbon September 2011, p. 171 (available online as pdf - "Algumas das obras escultóricas na Catedral (vd. Cap. 4.3) merecem referência por serem feitas por estatuárias: Imagem do Sagrado Coração de Jesus, da autoria de Simões de Almeida; Imagem de Santa Filomena, da autoria de Leopoldo de Almeida; Via Sacra, do mesmo autor. É composta por 14 quadros de 1.80 by 0.80 m (Santos 1944b e Pereira 1966) ").

Web links

Commons : Sé Catedral de Maputo  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 25 ° 58 ′ 9.3 ″  S , 32 ° 34 ′ 27.4 ″  E