Igreja de Santa Clara (Porto)
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The Igreja de Santa Clara is a Roman Catholic church in the Portuguese city of Porto in a courtyard on Largo 1 ° Dezembro. It is considered to be one of the finest examples of the gold-lined churches of the Portuguese Baroque . Externally it is a baroque church with a simple Gothic facade from the fifteenth century.
history
In 1405, Pope Innocent VII allowed Queen Philippa of Lancaster to move the Poor Clares from Torrão to Porto, to a place called Carvalhos do Monte , near the city fortifications. After the queen's death, King John I was responsible for its construction. The foundation stone was laid on March 28, 1416 by the bishop of Porto Fernando Guerra in the presence of the king, princes Ferdinand and Alfons and the entire court. Much of the construction was financed by the monarch. The Poor Clares moved into the monastery in 1427, but the church was not completed until 30 years later.
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Several structural changes were made in the 16th and 17th centuries. From August 1630 there is a note in the expenditure book, according to which the organ was repaired for 4000 real , another repair of the organ took place in July 1660. In the years 1707 to 1715 a new convent building was built by the architect Antonio Pereira. In 1729 the main chapel was expanded. From 1730 to 1732 Miguel Francisco da Silva extended the church and fitted it out with gilded carvings in Brazilian precious wood and gold leaf. This great change did not take place in a gradual process , as with the Church of São Francisco , but rather in one fell swoop. The gilded carvings of the choir were made around 1730 by the Lisbon resident Miguel Francisco da Silva, while the nave was gilded by Pedro da Silva and António José Pereira in 1744. The carving shows a formal unity that is not to be found in São Francisco, where the decoration was carried out in several sections.
After the order was revoked in 1834, the monastery remained in existence until the death of the last nun in 1901. Then the convent building was converted into a hospital. Extensive renovation work was carried out on the church in 2004 and 2017.
Building description
The single-nave structure is completed by a choir . As was customary in the church of a women's convent, the main entrance was on the north side facade. This portal, with a round arch, is flanked by pilasters and has a frieze supported by entablature with three niches, the end of which is provided with battlements. It combines Tado-Gothic and Renaissance elements that were added in the 18th century.
Web links
- Igreja de Santa Clara. In: Pesquisa Geral - Pesquisa do Patrimonio. Direção Geral do Património Cultural , accessed March 28, 2018 (Portuguese).
- Mosteiro de Santa Clara / Igreja de Santa Clara. In: SIPA. Retrieved March 27, 2018 (Portuguese).
Coordinates: 41 ° 8 ′ 33.1 ″ N , 8 ° 36 ′ 33.4 ″ W.