Bissau Cathedral

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Main entrance to the cathedral of Bissau

The Bissau Cathedral , in Portuguese Catedral de Bissau , with its full name Sé Catedral de Nossa Senhora da Candelária (Cathedral of Our Virgin of Candelaria ), is a Roman Catholic cathedral in the Guinea-Bissau capital of Bissau . The cathedral, consecrated in December 1950, is the center of the Roman Catholic Church in Guinea-Bissau and the seat of the Bissau diocese founded in 1977 . The cathedral is located in the center of the capital on Avenida Amílcar Cabral . The north tower of the church building also serves as a leading light to guide ships through the estuary of the Geba River to the port of Bissau to conduct.

history

Side view of the cathedral
inner space

Even before the cathedral was built, there was an older, medieval Catholic church on the same site. In the course of setting up the Gabinete de Urbanização Colonial (GUC) with the aim of urbanizing the Portuguese colonies more strongly and creating a representative architecture dominated by the Estado Novo , the architects João Simões , Lucínio Cruz and Galhardo Zilhão worked on behalf of the GUC in 1946/47 Plans to remodel the building. The architects Vasco Regaleira (1942) as well as Paulo Cunha and Guilherme Gomes (1945) had already developed renovation proposals beforehand .

The renovation work according to the plans of Simões, Cruz and Zilhão began in 1945 and could be completed in 1950. The tenth commissioned work by the Gabinete de Urbanização Colonial received the approval of the Minister for the Colonies, Marcelo Caetano , on November 28, 1945 . The three architects designed a simplified neo-Romanesque sacred building with two towers, combined with the claim to connect with the sacred architecture of Portugal as well as to use the difficult economic conditions of Portuguese Guinea and to find their own "Portuguese-tropical style".

The cathedral is slightly offset from the street, but with the main entrance facing. The interior is divided by three naves, with direct access to the bell towers, the burial chamber and the baptistery at the entrance (the narthex ). The transept is relatively narrow and inconspicuous, the altar is in the apse . The church interior is illuminated by a rose window on the main facade and by narrow, vertical, colorful glass windows that are oriented towards the pillars of the building. The interior design is cautious, especially compared to the Portuguese churches.

The church was consecrated on December 7, 1950 with a major two-day service. The church received the stained windows in 1953, and the electric organ was installed in 1954. Since its inauguration, the cathedral has been the center of the Roman Catholic Church in the Portuguese colony, as well as after independence in 1973/74. Especially during the strong urbanization efforts of the Portuguese colonial power in the 1940s to 1960s, the cathedral was a strong symbol of Portugal's presence and the intended transformation of Bissau into a “capital worthy of the country”. Colonial governor Sarmento Rodrigues wrote in a commemorative publication in 1949: “The city of S. José de Bissau today has a remarkable collection of streets and buildings. […] There are hotels, hospitals, a stadium, squares, monuments, a cathedral, tap water, electricity and all modern conveniences ”. If high - colonial - state guests visited the colony and the capital Bissau, a stop, if not a church service, was a must. On the state trip of the Portuguese President Américo Tomás in 1968 to Portuguese Guinea, he also visited the cathedral, where a Te-Deum was held in his honor .

On January 27, 1990, Pope John Paul II visited the Church. On August 9, 1998, Bishop Settimio Ferrazetta warned the parties to the conflict in the Guinea-Bissau civil war in a well-known sermon for peace and quiet and lamented the massive violence in the country. Ferrazetta, who acted as a mediator in the conflict, died before the end of the civil war and was buried in the cathedral after his death.

It is not known whether the cathedral is a listed building. The building is registered with the number 30430 in the Portuguese monument database Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico (SIPA), which also includes monuments from former Portuguese colonies.

beacon

Bissau Cathedral in the 1960s

A beacon was installed in the north tower of the cathedral after the church was consecrated in 1950. Together with the lower light 350 meters to the south, the north tower forms a leading light for navigation in the estuary of the Geba River. A green flashing indicator with a return of nine seconds is shown as an identifier (LFl.G.9s).

Web links

Commons : Bissau Cathedral  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Ana Vaz Milheiro: Sé Catedral. In: Patimónio de Influência Portuguesa (HPIP). Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 2008, accessed February 13, 2018 (Portuguese).
  2. ↑ a b Catedral de Bissau | Nossa Senhora da Candelária. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on February 20, 2017 ; accessed on February 13, 2018 . 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 / www.catedralbissau.com
  3. ↑ Ana Vaz Milheiro and Eduardo Costa Dias: Arquitectura em Bissau e os Gabi signified de Urbanização colonial (1944-1974) . In: usjt - arq.urb . No. 2 , 2009, p. 80–114 ( usjt.br [PDF]): “A cidade de S. José de Bissau tem hoje um apreciável conjunto de artérias e edificações. Todas elas not bastam, porém, para os seus numerosos habitantes que aumentam dia a dia. Possui hotéis, hospitais, estádio, praças, monumentos, uma catedral, água canalizada, luz e todas as modernas conveniências. Secaram-se os pântanos que a envolviam ea empestavam. "
  4. ^ Crónica da viagem do Presidente Américo Thomaz à Guiné e Cabo Verde. P. 65 (with photo). In: Memórias de África e do Oriente. Universidade de Aveiro, 1968, accessed February 13, 2018 (Portuguese).
  5. ^ Sé Catedral de Nossa Senhora da Candelária, Bissau, Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. Retrieved February 13, 2018 .
  6. ^ Richard Andrew Lobban, Peter Michael Karibe Mendy: Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau . Scarecrow Press, October 17, 2013, ISBN 978-0-8108-8027-6 , p. 166.
  7. ^ Tiago Lourenço: Palácio do Governador de Bissau / Palácio Presidencial. In: Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico (SIPA). 2012, Retrieved February 3, 2018 (Portuguese, with photos).
  8. ^ Russ Rowlett: Lighthouses of Guinea-Bissau ( English ) In: The Lighthouse Directory . University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . Retrieved February 13, 2018.

Coordinates: 11 ° 51 ′ 36.2 "  N , 15 ° 34 ′ 52.2"  W.