This church forms part of the route that the Sandemans free walking tour takes, but the guide only told us about the history of the church from the outside, and so on Day 2 of our visit, we decided to come by in the morning to check this church out.
What is intriguing and interesting about this church, (as told by our tour guide) is the following 3 things:
1) Survivor of 2 earthquakes and a fire: This Church has had three natural disasters occur to the building, and the scars of all three are clearly visible in the architecture and facades, as very minimal reconstruction and refurbishment occurred after the two earthquakes and a subsequent fire in the 1950s.
The plastered walls inside start off being a funny orangey-pink color and then it turns into a baroque style. If you look up at the ceiling, the fire damage is obvious with the scorch marks showing up against the stone pillars as well.
2) Head church for the Portuguese Inquisition: The Spanish inquisition also made its way to Portugal, and this church was the local HQ. A missionary was actually executed inside this the church after being accused of treason by his colleagues!
3) Lisbon Easter Massacre: Our guide said that one of the most shameful things that happened here was the slaughter of the Catholic converts, that turned into a massacre of the Jewish populace of Lisbon City back in the 1500s. What happened was that the city was going thru famine & plague, and new Catholic converts as well as the establishment were at this church praying for deliverance. One of the Catholic paterfamilias talked about an appearance of Christ which the congregation took to be a miracle. However one of the newer Converts corrected him and said it was just how light and the suns reflection occurs and was works. He was accused of hearsay and beaten to death and the anger turned to all other new Catholics and Jews in the city were accused of heresy and killed.
Some of that gruesome history came back to me when I visited the inside of the church as to the far right side, there is an interesting triptych; at the bottom, level with the floor is a gruesome depiction of Jesus's decaying body. Then at eye level, is a depiction of his death in his mother's arms and finally, above both of those images, you see his body nailed it the cross. It's kinda graphic and disturbing to be honest. But as counterpart, on the other side is a most beautiful Art Deco sculpture of Jesus as well as a white marble sculpture of Mary.
And then, if that's not enough, when you exit the church and see a long line of people queuing in front of a store, that's the location of the famous cherry brandy shop "A Ginjinha!"
So yeah - plenty to think about at this Church, and maybe a drink is indeed needed afterwards!
Yelp 194/ 2019 read more