Architecture of Portugal - Baroque Style (1717-1755)

Baroque Style (1717-1755)

The year 1697 is an important year for Portuguese architecture. In that year gold, gems and later diamonds were found in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Mining exploration was strongly controlled by the Portuguese Crown, which imposed heavy taxes on everything extracted (one fifth of all gold would go to the Crown). These enormous proceeds caused Portugal to prosper and become the richest country of Europe in the 18th century. King João V, who reigned between 1706 and 1750, tried to rival the French king Louis XIV, also called the Sun King, by engaging in a large number of expensive building activities. But the French king could rely on local experience for the glorification and his name and of France. The Palace of Versailles was transformed for Louis XIV into a marvelous palace by architect Louis Le Vau, painter and designer Charles Le Brun and the landscape architect André Le Nôtre. The Portuguese king, on the other hand, had to make up the lack of local experience and tradition with foreign artists who were lured to Portugal with huge amounts of money.

King João V squandered his money lavishly, starting numerous building projects, many of which were never finished.

The Mafra National Palace is among the most sumptuous Baroque buildings in Portugal. This monumental palace-monastery-church complex is even larger than the El Escorial, an immense 16th century Spanish royal palace north of Madrid to emphasize the symbolic affirmation of his power. The king appointed Johann Friedrich Ludwig (known in Portugal as João Frederico Ludovice) as the architect. This German goldsmith (!) had received some experience as an architect, working for the Jesuits in Rome. His design for the palace is a synthesis of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, the Jesuit Sant'Ignazio church in Rome and the Palazzo Montecitorio, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

This design was in line with the king's desire to imitate the Eternal City, and with his ambition to found a "second Rome" at the river Tagus. His envoys in Rome had to provide the king with models and floor plans of many Roman monuments.

One of these was the Patriarchal palace in Lisbon. The Piedmontese architect Filippo Juvarra was brought to Lisbon to draw up the plans. But this project was also toned down because Juvarra only stayed for a few months and left – breaking his contract – for London.

Other important constructions were :

• 1729-1748 : the Águas Livres aqueduct in Lisbon (by Manuel da Maia, Antonio Canevari and Custódio Vieira), described by contemporaties as the ‘greatest work since the Romans’. It provided Lisbon with water, but also the many new monumental fountains built by the Hungarian Carlos Mardel
• 1728-1732 : the Quinta de S Antão do Tojal (by the Italian architect Antonio Canevari)
• 1753 : the Opera house of Lisbon (destroyed 1755) (by Giovanni Carlo Sicinio-Bibiena)
• (completed in 1750) Palace of Necessidades (by Eugenio dos Santos, Custodio Vieira, Manuel da Costa Negreiros and Caetano Tomas de Sousa)
• from 1747 : the Queluz Palace, the country residence for the king's younger brother (by Mateus Vicente de Oliveira and Jean-Baptiste Robillon). This palace is the country's second major example in Baroque style. However the façade shows already some Rococo details.

His most spectacular undertaking was however the building in Rome of the St John the Baptist chapel with the single purpose of obtaining the blessing of the pope Benedict XIV for this chapel. The chapel was designed by Luigi Vanvitelli in 1742 and built by Nicola Salvi in the church S. Antonio dei Portoghesi. After the benediction, the chapel was disassembled and transported to Lisbon. It was assembled again in 1747 in the S Roque church. It is opulently decorated with porphyry, the rarest marbles and precious stones. Its design already foreshadows the classical revival.

A different and more exuberant Baroque style with some Rococo touches, more reminiscent of the style in Central Europe, developed in the northern part of Portugal. The Italian architect Nicolau Nasoni designed the church and the spectacular granite tower of São Pedro dos Clérigos in Porto. One of his successors was the painter and architect José de Figueiredo Seixas, who had been one of his disciples. The sanctuary Bom Jesus do Monte near Braga, built by the architect Carlos Luis Ferreira Amarante is a notable example of a pilgrimage site with a monumental, cascading Baroque stairway that climbs 116 metres. This last example already shows the shift in style to Neo-classicism.

The Palácio do Raio (by André Soares) is an outstanding Baroque-Rococo urban palace with richly decorated façade in Braga. Several country houses and manors in late-Baroque style were built in this period. Typical examples are the homes of the Lobo-Machado family (in Guimarães), the Malheiro (Viana do Castelo) and the Mateus (Vila Real).