Igreja de São Vicente de Fora, Lisbon

Igreja de São Vicente de Fora is a church and monastery in Lisbon dating from the seventeenth century, and its complex includes the royal burial place of Portugal’s Braganza rulers. [narrativeExtractEn] The façade you can see is austere and balanced, with paired towers, niches for saints, and a broad entrance arrangement. [articleExtractPt] Filipe Terzio is identified as the architect.

[architect] The building brings together Romanesque, Baroque, and Mannerist traditions. [architecturalStyle] Its story reaches back to a foundation around 1147, established for the Augustinian Order by Afonso Henriques. [inception] The monastery is dedicated to Saint Vincent of Saragossa, whose relics came to Lisbon from the Algarve in the twelfth century.

[namedAfter] The present church was built between 1582 and 1629, during the rebuilding ordered by Philip the Second of Spain after he became king of Portugal. [articleExtractEn] In the monastery, more than a hundred thousand Baroque azulejos form scenes of rural life, hunting, noble leisure, and fables by La Fontaine. [articleExtractPt] Inside the church, look for the grand baldachin above the altar, created by Joaquim Machado de Castro, and the historic organ made in 1765 by João Fontanes de Maqueira.

[articleExtractPt] The monastery also holds the Braganza pantheon, created when a former monks’ dining hall was converted for royal tombs. [articleExtractEn]