Lisbon - Igreja de Sao Roque

This church, which contains Lisbon's most valuable church interior decoration, is located quite inconspicuously in the Largo Trindade Coelho on the corner of the traffic heavy Rua de Sao Pedro.

The Igreja de Sao Roque was built in the second half of the 16th C. on the site of a Manueline Rochus chapel, which Joao III had granted to the Jesuits. It was erected according to the plans of the Italian architect Filippo Terzi, who also later designed the Igreja de Sao Vicente de Fora.

The original facade was destroyed by the earthquake and had to be newly rebuilt after 1755. Rythmically articulated by two rows of pilasters, it appears rather cool and unadorned. The one aisled interior of the church has remained for the most part spared from the effects of the earthquake. Unfortunately the side chapel dedicated to St Anthony was relatively badly damaged and was not restored until the 19th C.

The Manueline style in which the interior is constructed corresponded with the ideas of the Jesuits and embodies, as it were, a religious program: the restrained interior construction should help worshippers to concentrate fully on the church service.

In keeping with the times is the conscious observance of acoustic aspects through the abandonment of side aisles and the inclusion of apertures for natural light. Beams necessary for the flat, extraordinarily wide roof of the nave were unavailable in this size on the Iberian peninsula and thus had to be brought from Germany.

The ceiling is decorated with architectural paintings in perspective, which imitate a cupola vault. The effect of the really sober and clearly calculated internal architecture is almost drowned by the decorations and the large side chapels.

The eight side chapels were furnished in the 16th C. and the 17th C. and decorated in parts up until the 19th C.