The Romanesque style of architecture was introduced in Portugal between the end of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th century. In general, Portuguese cathedrals have a heavy, fortress-like appearance, with crenellations and few decorative elements apart from portals and windows. Portuguese Romanesque cathedrals were later extensively modified, among others the Old Cathedral of Coimbra, although it only had some minor changes.
Chronological and geographical distribution of Romanesque buildings in Portugal are intimately connected with the territorial organization emerging from the Reconquista, being the fundamental reason for the differences between a locally influenced artistical phenomenon in the North of the country and a more "international" kind in buildings like Coimbra and Lisbon cathedrals. Romanesque architecture first developed in Minho and Douro regions (with Braga Cathedral being its reference) spreading later southwards to Coimbra. It is in the rural areas of the northwest and center regions that Romanesque buildings are more concentrated, being more dense in the margins of rivers Douro and Mondego.
Introduction
It was in areas that had been recently added to Portuguese territory, thus more open to foreign influence, places where royal and ecclesiastical sponsorship were stronger, where French monastical communities settled in and foreign artists produced their works (like Coimbra and Lisbon), that we find the most artistically complete forms of Romanesque. As it expanded it became more local, mixing with earlier regional construction techniques and solutions.
Romanesque building construction activity gained pace after 1095, when Count Henry took possession of the County of Portugal. Count Henry came with noblemen and Benedictine monks from the Abbey of Cluny, which was headed by Henry's brother, Hugh. The Benedictines and other religious orders ended up giving great impulse to Romanesque architecture in Portugal during the whole 12th century. Examples of those rural monastical and parish churches, most of them built in the 9th and 10th centuries with late High Middle Ages artistical features and before the expansion of Romanesque architecture, are the Monastery of Rates, one of the best iconographical buildings of this style in Portugal, the churches of Paço de Sousa Monastery, Santa Maria de Airães and the Monastery of São Pedro de Ferreira, among others.
Their communities first followed the Benedictine rule but were later deeply influenced by the monastical reforms in the 11th century, mainly the Cluniac, reflected in the adoption of newly Romanesque architectural features, creating some very regional and rich decorative and architectural solutions.
Pre-Romanesque architecture: The Mozarabic art
Mozarabic art refers not only to the artistic style of Mozarabs (from musta'rab meaning "Arabized"), Iberian Christians living in Al-Andalus who adopted some Arab customs without converting to Islam, preserving their religion and some ecclesiastical and judicial autonomy, but also to those same communities that migrated north to the Christian Kingdoms, bringing with them an architectural phenomenon in which Christian and Islamic artistic elements were fused together.
Although Mozarabic communities maintained for the practice of their religious rites some of the Visigothic churches predating the Islamic occupation, the extent of this Visigothic artistical heritage is hard to pinpoint, as most monuments from the previous period have been lost. Nevertheless, those buildings that did survive seem to hold on tenaciously to traditions of Visigothic architecture with few, if any, Islamic features. All this includes them in the ample concept of Pre-Romanesque architecture. Besides this possible Visigothic connection, Mozarabic architecture in Portugal also came in contact with Asturian art, identified with the artistic creations that were being produced during the 9th century specifically in the territories that comprised the Kingdom of Asturias. However this artistic activity, in general (and architecture specifically) was not limited to this area or this century, it encompassed the whole northern peninsula and continued during the next century.
The most exceptional example of Mozarabic architecture in Portugal is the Church of São Pedro de Lourosa, near Coimbra. There is no doubt that this rural church was founded sometime around 912 AD (950 by the Era of Caesar, corresponds to 912 by Christian Era) according to an authentic inscription found in one of the transept arms. Despite a number of Asturian references to the church's engravings, the influences of the architectural models favoured by the Mozarabs are clearly visible in the modulation of the masonry and mainly in the decorative elements of the cornices (use of the Chambranle) and the design of horseshoe arches, typical of Mozarabic style. Its basilican type structure comprises a small transept separating the chancel from the main body of the building (called a Narthex), and a row of three surmounted arches supported by columns separating the central nave from the side aisles. During restoration works carried out in the mid-20th century, various architectural features were found that would have belonged to an earlier Visigothic church.
Other examples of Mozarabic monuments in Portuguese territory are the Chapel of São Pedro de Balsemão in Lamego, the Cathedral of Idanha-a-Velha, with a more Visigothic influence but still used by the Mozarabic community of the region, the Church of São Gião, near Nazaré, and the unique apse of the old monastery of Castro de Avelãs (Bragança), that presents not only a Mozarabic flavour but also a deep fusion with Asturian-Leonese architectural features. Most scholars had identified its construction from the late 12th and early 13th centuries, although new archeological findings have challenged that date and put its origin back in the 11th century.
Rise and development of Romanesque in Portugal (11th to 13th century) In Portugal, the Romanesque architecture comes in late 11th century within a wider phenomenon of European cultural and religious spreading to the Iberian Peninsula, influenced by the Cluniac monastical reforms and the arrival of the Orders of Cluny (after 1086), Cister (or Citeaux) (1144), St. Augustine (after 1131) and the Military-Religious Orders of the Knights Hospitaller (1121) and the Knights Templar (1126). The Romanesque architecture, through its prestige, relates with the rise and assertion of Portuguese independence.
Developing itself later than witnessed in the rest of Europe, in Portugal it only gained real significance after the second quarter of the 12th century, although previous buildings of the same style already existed. Various factors contribute to this aspect, mainly the unstable environment experienced in the Iberian Peninsula at the time due to the Reconquista and the consequent political reorganisation of peninsular geography. In fact, one of the most significant aspects of Romanesque architecture in the Peninsula, but particularly in Portugal, is the noticeable connotation that we find between its spreading and land organisation and occupation. The arrival in Portugal of the religious orders mentioned above must be understood in the general context of the Reconquista. In fact, those monastical institutions received immense privileges from the Portuguese monarchs and nobility, contributing to the security of the territory, but above all, to its social organization. This Reconquista took place from North to South, resulting in the same spread of Romanesque architecture with a decreasing density to the South. Almost no Romanesque artifacts survive in Southern Portugal.José Custódio Vieira da Silva, Portugal §2: Architecture; Oxford Art online
The first Romanesque churches in the North were simple constructions, consisting of a nave with a timber roof and a rectangular apse. Examples can be found at the Igreja de São Cristóvão de Rio Mau, at the Igreja de Santa Eulália do Mosteiro de Arnoso and at the Church of Fontarcada (with already a semicircular apse at the east end).
Expansion of the Romanesque style coincided with the reign of D.Afonso Henriques (1139–1185), a monarch with Burgundian background being the son of Count Henry and great-grandson of Robert II, King of France. During his reign Lisbon, Coimbra, Porto and Viseu Cathedrals were built and also the Augustinian Monastery of Santa Cruz, projected to be a royal pantheon. The construction began in 1131 and by 1150 the nave and its apses were already finished. Its structural shape and decorative features were a novelty in Portugal, showing that its architect was either probably French or came in contact with French Romanesque architecture from Burgundy like Tournus, Cluny, Paray-le-Monial or Romainmôtier.
Being a predominantly religious architecture, Portuguese Romanesque style was deeply related with ecclesiastical rural church parishes and monastic monasteries founded or rebuilt in the 12th and 13th centuries, with bishops, by royal mandate, their biggest sponsors.
Romanesque cathedrals (Braga, Porto, Viseu, Coimbra and Lisbon) Braga Cathedral The Cathedral of Braga was rebuilt in the 1070s by Bishop Pedro and consecrated in 1089, although only the apse was finished at the time. He wished to create a pilgrimage church, with a three aisled nave, an ambulatory and a large transept. Works increased during the tenure of D.Paio Mendes as archbishop (1118–37), after King D.Afonso Henriques granted a foral chart to the city as well as generous donations for its construction. It was then resumed and lasted until the middle of the 13th century. The original 12th-century building was built in the Burgundian Romanesque style of the monastery church of Cluny and influenced many other churches and monasteries in Portugal in that period. In later times the cathedral was greatly modified, so that today it is a mix of Romanesque, Gothic, Manueline and Baroque styles.
The original Romanesque Western façade of the cathedral has been totally suppressed, except for some archivolts and capitals of the main portal, heavily decorated with animal and human sculptured reliefs. The figures on one archivolt, with hens, foxes and a minstrel, may be telling a moralistic song like the ones from Roman de Renart, of French tradition.
Inside it has three aisles covered by a wooden roof, a transept and five Eastern chapels in the apse. On the north wall outside of the cathedral there is the small Chapel of São Geraldo, in memory of Geraldo of Moissac, Archbishop of Braga (1096–1108), of early Romanesque design, that may be a remnant of the late 11th-century building. This chapel was left outside of the final cathedral, perhaps due to a change of design in the 12th century. The nave is essentially Romanesque thanks to a "purifying" reform in the 20th century that suppressed most later additions, although some original capitals of the columns have been lost. D.Afonso, son of King D.João I, is buried in a 15th-century tomb made of bronze, which can be seen in the nave of the cathedral.
Several chapels were built adjacent to the cathedral in the Middle Ages. The Chapel of Kings (Capela dos Reis) was built around 1374 in the place where Count Henrique and Countess Teresa were buried. Their tombs were replaced in the early 16th century by new ones, with recumbent figures.
Porto Cathedral
The Porto Cathedral, located in the historical centre of the city of Porto, is one of the city's oldest monuments and one of the most important Romanesque monuments in the country.