Mosteiro da Batalha

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Batalha Monastery
UNESCO world heritage UNESCO World Heritage Emblem
Monasterio dominico de Santa María da Vitória.jpg
National territory: PortugalPortugal Portugal
Type: Culture
Criteria : i, ii
Surface: 0.98 ha
Reference No .: 264
UNESCO region : Europe and North America
History of enrollment
Enrollment: 1983  (session 7)
Complete church facade west view (main entrance)

The Mosteiro da Batalha , also Monastery of Batalha ( Portuguese : battle; the full name of the monastery is Mosteiro de Santa Maria da Vitória , Monastery of St. Mary of Victory ) is a Dominican monastery in the Portuguese city ​​of Batalha and dates from the 14th to the 14th centuries 16th Century. It was built in thanks for Portugal's victory over the Kingdom of Castile in the Battle of Aljubarrota over the course of 150 years and was added to the UNESCO list in 1983 as a World Heritage Site .

According to tradition, before the battle of August 14, 1385 , João I (John I) had promised to build a monastery for the Virgin Mary if she would support the Portuguese armed forces in the fight against the numerically superior Castilian army. The handover of the monastery to the Dominican order is documented for 1388 . The construction was probably carried out exclusively under the conditions and financing of the royal family, which explains the extremely demanding architecture for a mendicant order church . The monastery is to be understood as a demonstration of the royal dynasty Avis, newly founded by João I. An equestrian statue of the victorious general Nuno Álvares Pereira stands in front of the monastery.

history

background

Oath of John of Avis before the battle of Aljubarrota

With Ferdinand I , the last King of 1383 was the House of Burgundy died. The kings of neighboring Castile had long waited for an opportunity to restore feudal sovereignty over Portugal. An uprising headed by Johann von Avis, a descendant of the Burgundian kings who was unable to claim the throne due to his illegitimate birth, drove the pro-Castilian actors out of Portugal. The Castilian King John I subsequently marched into Portugal with a large force, while the Portuguese Cortes declared John of Avis the defender and king of the fatherland.

The climax of this dispute was the Battle of Aljubarrota . Before this battle, Johann von Avis is said to have prayed to the mother of Jesus and asked her for assistance. His prayer was linked to an oath that he would build a monastery and dedicate it to her if she would help the Portuguese troops to victory. The battle of August 14, 1385 was victorious for the Portuguese army led by Johann, although the Castilian troops were stronger and better equipped. Shortly after his enthronement as John I of Portugal, the king began to redeem his oath. He bought the land for the monastery from his friend and companion in war Egas Coelho . It is located a little north of the battlefield at that time near the city of Leiria and had fertile soil and above all water. The king pushed the construction forward because he gave it legitimacy as a symbol of heavenly support on the battlefield.

The original plan of Johann I seemed to have been to hand over the monastery to the Cistercian order. This was supported by the fact that the abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Alcobaça , João de Ornelas , was a friend of the king and had supported him in the war against Castile. John's first son was baptized in the Alcobaça monastery and John's father Peter I was buried there. So it could have been bequeathed to the Cistercians as a symbol of gratitude. There were also economic reasons for this: Alcobaça was close enough to Batalha to enable the common use of facilities, the Alcobaça Monastery was also financially strong enough to develop Batalha. Last but not least, the Cistercians attached great importance to spreading the veneration of Mary .

During the siege of Melgaço , however, under the influence of João das Regras and his confessor, the Dominican João Lampreia , John I decided to leave the monastery to the Dominicans. For this was the devotion of the Dominicans for the Virgin Mary and the support for the Roman Pope during the Western Schism . In April 1388 Batalha was handed over to the Dominican Order; However, this prehistory is the reason why Batalha does not own some of the facilities that a mendicant monastery typically has. The Dominicans did not have any influence on the construction; its construction and its financing were a matter for the king. In his will of October 4, 1426, the king explained his decision in detail and stipulated that the monks of Alcobaça should pray for his soul together with the monks of Batalha every year on the day of his death and the day of the queen's death in Batalha.

construction

The monastery church building in its entirety in the south view

Already one to two years after the Battle of Aljubarrota, preparations began on the site. It is not known exactly when construction began, but documents show that this happened before 1387. The king himself procured the best material for the undertaking and employed renowned professionals, so that the organization of the construction site was as efficient as anywhere else in Europe. The first builder to lead the construction was Afonso Rodrigues , probably the best builder in Portugal of his time. He planned the church, the sacristy, the chapter house, the dormitory and the refectory. Probably after Rodrigues' death, Huguet, a foreigner, took over the building, which he subsequently managed for 36 years. He had already been active under Rodrigues, probably completed the church in 1426 and introduced innovations in architecture and decoration, such as the vault above the chapter house. He designed and completed the Capela do Fundador , and also designed the unfinished chapels . Martim Vasques took over the work from 1438 and 1448 and completed the monastery; no major architectural contributions were made by him. After his death, his nephew Fernão de Évora took over the building. He added the cloister named after King Afonso V to the complex , which contrasts sharply with Huguet's overloaded style with its sobriety. After Fernão de Évora's death, there was initially little progress. Mateus Fernandes , who headed the construction site from 1490 to 1515, continued to build the unfinished chapels and left behind the oldest example of Manueline with their portals .

architecture

Exterior view of the monastery
View from Claustro Real to the church
Mosteiro da Batalha
Mosteiro da Batalha portal

The first master builder is Afonso Domingues , who probably came from Portugal and who led the construction until his death in 1401/1402. The floor plan of the church , the sacristy and parts of the royal cloister ("Claustro Real") are based on his design . The church is a three-aisled basilica with a single-nave transept . In the east it is closed by a complex apse system. This consists of a two-zone main apse in the width of the central nave and two single-zone side apses that connect to the north and south. The church was not started with the apse in the east, as is often the case , but rather in almost even layers over the entire floor plan. This explains the stylistic change in shape in the upper building sections of the church, which can be traced back to the second builder Huguet , whose origin is not certain but can be assumed to be in Catalonia . He continued the construction of the monastery until 1437. He completed the church and the "Claustro Real" largely in the spirit of its predecessor, but modified the sculptural jewelry, which is particularly evident in the richly decorated west facade of the church. Overall, the sections designed by him are characterized by finer profiles of the vault ribs and window and portal walls .

Royal cloister

View of the cloister
View into the cloister

The Royal Cloister ( Claustro Real ) on the north side of the church building is 50 meters long and 50 meters wide. The south and east wings came from Domingues, the north and west wings from Huguet. Despite the different styles of the two builders, it creates a harmonious whole. With its size and the quality of the work on the numerous vaults, the client showed that he wanted to show his royal power with the complex in Batalha. In its pomp and opulence, it is reminiscent of the cloister of a cathedral, not the cloister of a monastery belonging to a mendicant order. It is possible that the construction was adopted directly from the cloister of the Cathedral of Évora .

The decorations on the capitals and end stones show plant motifs. In the south wing of the cloister is a capital decorated with two pairs of Dominican friars, each holding an open book in their hands. This symbolizes the great importance of study in the life of the Dominicans; as in Alcobaça , the south wing of the cloister was reserved for reading.

At the beginning of the 16th century, the delicate tracery was added to the arcade arches. It rests on slender columns, shows the shapes of twigs and garlands and is one of the earliest examples of the Manueline style named after King Manuel I , a Portuguese special form of the late Gothic . In the middle of the tracery decorated arches is a small armillary sphere , the personal mark of King Manuel I.

Chapter House

Glance into the chapter house
Vault of the chapter room

The chapter house is on the east wing of the cloister next to the sacristy. It is square with a side length of 19 meters. It is accessible through a gate which leads through a very strong wall and is equipped with five archivolts on the outside and four on the inside. As is customary on the Iberian Peninsula since the Romanesque period, the gate is decorated with tracery and windows.

The Annunciation is depicted on two capitals to the right of the door . On the left is an angel with a roll of parchment that extends from shoulder to foot, on the right the Virgin Mary with a vessel in her hand and a necklace with a hand-shaped pendant, probably amulets , which are supposed to protect against evil. This old-fashioned representation suggests a work by the first master builder Domingues. On the other capitals are human faces with foliage .

Domingues originally wanted to build a three-aisled chapter house based on the model of the chapter house of the Alcobaça monastery . After Domingues' death, Huguet decided to innovate by roofing the entire hall with a single ribbed vault that describes an octagonal star and in the middle of which is a large end stone with the king's coat of arms. This construction, daring for the time, represents one of the largest column-free vaulted rooms of the Middle Ages and the early modern period on the Iberian Peninsula. With it Huguet emancipated himself from Domingues and recommended himself to the king as a contractor for the construction of the chapel for the donor. The master builder immortalized himself in the form of a statue on one of the consoles that support the ribs.

On the east side of the chapter room there is a colorful window that depicts the passion of Christ in the form of a three-part triptych . This window dates from 1514. Despite this window, the chapter house is always semi-dark, which is why the room has housed the national memorial of the unknown soldier for the Portuguese fallen in World War I since April 9, 1921 .

Dormitory

The huge and sober dormitory occupies the northern front of the royal cloister. With its mighty columns and arches that support the pointed barrel vault, it has a very sober atmosphere that resembles the Alcobaça monastery. Its east wall is equipped with a two-part window, the other walls have rectangular openings high above.

With its large common rooms, it does not fit in well with the Dominican lifestyle, which is why plans were made very early on for a further cloister with individual cells for the monks on both sides of the cloister. After the completion of this Claustro Afonso V. the dormitory was used as a wine cellar.

Well house and refectory

At the intersection between the north and west wings of the cloister is the square fountain house . It is particularly elaborately designed, as washing your hands before entering the refectory symbolized a clean lifestyle.

The refectory also has a pointed barrel vault, although the columns are slimmer than the dormitory. As in the dormitory, the windows are very high up in the walls. There is a pulpit on the western wall that was used for readings during dinner. The rood screen shows the full coat of arms of King Edward and Eleanor of Aragon , which means that the pulpit was donated by the royal family or that the entire refectory was built during the reign of Edward.

Since 1924 the refectory has housed the museum of the Liga dos Combatentes , an organization of veterans of the Portuguese armed and security forces.

To the north of this area, which was part of the original plan, another, somewhat smaller cloister was built around 1470 . In contrast to almost all other parts of the monastery, this shows a very simple language of forms, which corresponded to the formal poverty ideal of the Dominicans. This is followed by other buildings which today, among other things, house a training center for stone sculptors. In the course of the 16th to 18th centuries, numerous other buildings were added to the north-east of the monastery. However, these were broken off in the course of the extensive reconstruction work since the middle of the 19th century.

Funerary chapels

Central vault of the Capela do Fundador

Shortly before 1426, the construction of the "Capela do Fundador" began as a burial chapel for the founder, his wife and the royal descendants. This chapel was completed in 1434, so that João and his wife Philippa von Lancaster, who died in 1415 , could be buried there. The building consists of a single-zone, square substructure and a set octagonal lantern that rises above the conversion. The double sarcophagus of the founding couple stands in the middle of the room, while the tombs of their descendants are in the wall niches of the renovation. Her best-known son is Dom Henrique o Navegador ( Heinrich the Navigator ).

João's eldest son and successor, Duarte , began building a huge chapel to the east of the monastery church, but it was never completed. Therefore it is today under the name "Capelas Imperfeitas", d. H. Unfinished chapels, known. The sculptural jewelry experiences its climax at the main portal. With its location immediately to the east of the apse and its floor plan as a central building , the chapel makes direct reference to Christ's Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem . It stands in a tradition that can be traced back through the entire Middle Ages in Spain and Portugal and that finds its structural climax in the cathedral of Granada . The “Capela do Fundador” also belongs to this line of development. The construction of two burial chapels of this size within such a short time, designed by the same master builder, is likely to be unique in medieval architectural history.

Members of the Portuguese ruling family buried in the monastery
  1. Philippa of Lancaster , Queen of Portugal (1360-1415) - (wife of King John I )
  2. Infant João (October 15, 1429; † 1433) - (son of King Edward I )
  3. Infant Fernão , the Saint (1402–1433) - (son of King John I )
  4. John I, King of Portugal (1357–1433)
  5. Infanta Maria (7 December 1432 - 8 December 1432) - (daughter of King Edward I )
  6. Edward I, King of Portugal (1391–1438)
  7. Infanta Filippa (27 November 1430 - 24 March 1439) - (daughter of King Edward I )
  8. Infant João (1400–1442) - (son of King John I )
  9. Eleanor of Aragon , Queen of Portugal (1400–1445) - (Wife of King Edward I )
  10. Infant João (29 January 1451 - 1455) - (son of King Alfonso V )
  11. Prince Heinrich the Navigator (1394–1460) - (son of King John I )
  12. Pedro, Duke of Coimbra (1392–1449) - (son of King John I )
  13. Isabel of Portugal , Queen of Portugal (1432-1455) - (first wife of King Alfonso V )
  14. Alfonso V, King of Portugal (1432–1481)
  15. Infant Afonso (18 May 1475 - 13 July 1491) - (son of King John II )
  16. John II, King of Portugal (1455–1495)

Restorations

The monastery was dissolved as a result of the Napoleonic occupation and became state property. Extensive restoration work began before the middle of the 19th century, some of which took on the character of a new building. All tracery were renewed, as well as the buttresses of the church and the attics of the roof areas. All church furnishings were removed. The monastery was purified in a strict Gothic style and large parts of the 16th to 18th centuries were demolished. The limestone that was broken near Porto de Mós , about 8 kilometers south of Batalha, is weathering increasingly quickly under today's environmental conditions. So incessant restorations have to be carried out on the building complex in order to secure the preservation of the UNESCO world cultural heritage.

See also

literature

  • J. Turner: Grove Dictionary of Art . MacMillan Publishers, 1996, ISBN 0-19-517068-7 .
  • Maria João Baptista Neto: James Murphy eo restauro de mosteiro de Santa Maria da Vitória no século XIX. Editorial Estampa, 1997, ISBN 972-33-1331-6 .
  • Maria João Baptista Neto: James Murphy. Arquitectura Gótica: Desenhos do Mosteiro da Batalha. Reedição do Álbum de 1795. (= Gothic Architecture: Designs of the Monastery of Batalha). 1795 album reprint. Alêtheia Ed., 2008, ISBN 978-989-622-152-2 .
  • Ralf Gottschlich: The Santa Maria da Vitória Monastery in Batalha and its position in Iberian sacral architecture of the late Middle Ages. Olms-Verlag, 2012, ISBN 978-3-487-14786-4 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b José Custódio Vieira da Silva and Pedro Redol: The monastery of Batalha . IPPAR and Scala, London 2007, ISBN 978-1-85759-382-2 , pp. 13 .
  2. ↑ a b José Custódio Vieira da Silva and Pedro Redol: The monastery of Batalha . IPPAR and Scala, London 2007, pp. 15 .
  3. ↑ José Custódio Vieira da Silva and Pedro Redol: The monastery of Batalha . IPPAR and Scala, London 2007, pp. 19th ff .
  4. ↑ a b José Custódio Vieira da Silva and Pedro Redol: The monastery of Batalha . IPPAR and Scala, London 2007, pp. 85 f .
  5. ↑ José Custódio Vieira da Silva and Pedro Redol: The monastery of Batalha . IPPAR and Scala, London 2007, pp. 89 .
  6. ↑ José Custódio Vieira da Silva and Pedro Redol: The monastery of Batalha . IPPAR and Scala, London 2007, pp. 91 .
  7. ↑ a b José Custódio Vieira da Silva and Pedro Redol: The monastery of Batalha . IPPAR and Scala, London 2007, pp. 92 .
  8. ↑ José Custódio Vieira da Silva and Pedro Redol: The monastery of Batalha . IPPAR and Scala, London 2007, pp. 95 .
  9. ↑ a b José Custódio Vieira da Silva and Pedro Redol: The monastery of Batalha . IPPAR and Scala, London 2007, pp. 97 .
  10. ↑ a b c José Custódio Vieira da Silva and Pedro Redol: The monastery of Batalha . IPPAR and Scala, London 2007, pp. 98 .

Web links

Commons : Mosteiro da Batalha  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 39 ° 39 ′ 33 "  N , 8 ° 49 ′ 34"  W.