Portuguese Architecture - Restoration Architecture (1640-1717)

Restoration Architecture (1640-1717)

The Baroque style follows naturally from and is the expression of the Counter-Reformation, a reaction of the Roman Catholic Church against the upcoming Protestantism. But since the ideas of Protestantism did not take root at all in Portugal, the Baroque style did not really catch on at a time when it was the prevailing style in the rest of Europe. Furthermore, this style was too much associated with the Jesuits and Spanish rule.

Instead a new style, a transition from the Plain Style to Late Baroque, was adopted when Portugal regained its independence in 1640. It was a period of declining economic and military power, with fewer projects and lesser opulence as a consequence.

José Fernandes Pereira identified the first period from 1651 to 1690 as a period of experimentation.

• The nobility were the first to show their regained power. A typical example is the Palace of the Marqueses da Fronteira in Benfica (Lisbon) (started in 1667). This country manor house still follows Italian Mannerism examples, but there is already a heavy influence of the Baroque style in the perfect harmony of the house and the surrounding gardens, the splendour of the staircase and the many iconographic, decorative elements in the rooms. The large azulejos (tile panels) covering the walls with equestrian portraits, historical battle scenes or trumpet-blowing monkeys, created by the workshops of Jan van Oort and Willem van der Kloet in Amsterdam, are unique.

• The Piedmontese Theatine priest and architect Camillo-Guarino Guarini designed the church of Santa Maria della Divina Providência in Lisbon. The elliptical floor plan, adopted in the church, stands apart in the Portuguese 17th century architecture. But his sketchbook however showed a different floor plan and elevation. Even if his designs, influenced by the Roman Baroque architect Francesco Borromini, were not exactly followed in this church, they were often publicized and they spread the influence of Borromini in Portugal.

• Other realisations in this period include :
  • Jacome Mendes : the church of Nossa Senhora da Piedade (in Santarém, 1665)
  • The church of S. Agostinho (1667) in Vila Viçosa
  • João Turriano : the Monastery of S Clara-a-Velha in Coimbra (1649–1696)
  • The church of Portimão, possibly by João Nunes Tinoco (1660).

The next period, between 1690 and 1717, saw the cautious introduction of the Baroque style in Portugal. The Church of Santa Engrácia (now the National Pantheon of Santa Engracia), begun in 1682 by João Nunes Tinoco and continued by João Antunes is a centralised structure, built in the form of a Greek cross (a cross with arms of equal length), crowned with a central dome (only completed in 1966 !) and the façades are ondulated like in the Baroque designs of Borromini. . It goes back to a design by the Italian architect Donato Bramante of the St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. It is perhaps the only truly Baroque building in Portugal. This time Rome, instead of Flanders, became the example to be followed for the construction of buildings.

The church of Senhor da Cruz in Barcelos, built by João Antunes in 1701-1704 is an unusual experiment because of its four-leaf clover plan.