The Igreja de Sao Vicente de Fora, together with the adjoining former Augustinian monastery (now closed), stands on a hill to the east of Alfama and is visible from afar. The Largo das Potas de Sol, on the edge of Alfama and where a memorial to St Vincent was erected in 1970, offers a fine view of the church in the distance. From here the additional name de Fora (outside), referring to its position, can be appreciated; at the time of its construction, the church stood outside of the city walls.
Several partly contradictory legends have grown up about the life of St Vincent to whom the church is dedicated. Both Portugal and Spain lay claim to the saint. Confusion reigns mostly about his burial site; one claim holds it to be in Avila in Spain in a church named after him, another points to St Vincent's mother of pearl encrusted reliquary in Lisbon's Sé Patriarchal, which used to be kept in a former church on the site of Sao Vicente de Fora.
He is commonly considered to be a Spanish saint, but is also held to be a Portuguese one. In Portugal he is the patron saint of sea voyages and of viniculture, and the people of Lisbon have recorded his life in the coat of arms of their city. According to Portuguese tradition, during the fourth C. the body of St Vincent was washed ashore at Sagres in the Algarve in one of two ships accompanied by ravens (Cabo de Sao Vicente is thus the name of the most southwesterly rocky plateau near to Sagres). In the 12th C. Afonso Henriques had his remains transported to one of the churches commissioned by him on the site of the present Sao Vicente de Fora.
The building of the Igreja de Sao Vicente de Fora was ordered by the Spanish king Philipp II in 1590. Philipp II had the previous 12th C. church on this site torn down and asked the Italian architect Filippo Terzi to design a new church. In his plans Terzi focused on the II Gesù in Rome. The building style evident in the Sao Vicente de Fora belongs to the end of the Renaissance. Although the church continued to be built up until the beginning of the 18th C. (the main work being completed by 1629, however), as a whole it appears extraordinarily uniform.
The strongly symmetrical facade is flanked by two towers. Above three great portals can be seen three niches with portrayals of St Sebastian, St Augustine and St Vincent and above them are three windows with triangular and segment pediments.
The former Augustinian monastery is reached via the nave. The entrance hall (portaria) and two small cloisters are covered with 18th C. tiles. Those in the hall depict scenes of the conquest of Lisbon and Santarém as well as the construction of Sao Vicente de Fora. Many of them show typical 18th C. painted tile scenes, although there are some anachronisms: views of the city, fashions and daily life are thoughtlessly mixed. The most original is a depiction of the capture of Lisbon in 1147 with the Sé Patriarchal in the background - the cathedral is shown with two Baroque towers which it did not acquire until the 18th C. The depiction of the construction of Sao Vicente de Fora shows the present late Renaissance church and not the intended Roman predecessor. Even the conquerors' ships are too Baroque for 1147.
In the cloisters (inside, leading to the transverse courtyard) 38 tiles depicting the fables of La Fontaine can be seen, some of which have been restored very poorly and now and then oddly. The sacristy lies between the cloisters. The walls are completely covered with pink, black and white marble, the wooden ceiling is decorated with 17th C. paintings by André Gonçalves.
The interior of the Igreja de Sao Vicente de Fora in Lisbon is decorated with white marble and also appears very unified. The 74m/243ft long one aisled construction is vaulted by a coffered ceiling with bright pink and bright yellow fields of marble. The crossing spans a cupola, whose proportions do not appear completely coherent. A larger and more lavish cupola collapsed during the earthquake - its former size can still be imagined from the lower edge of the cupola. Pillars support the careful construction of the present cupola. The enormous Baroque canopy which roofs over the Vincent altar was created by Machado de Castro. It is supposed to emphasise the "Most Holy One", but it almost overpowers the peaceful unity of the rest of the architecture. Of the six side chapels, one completely decorated with Talha woodwork is particularly striking.
In 1855 the former refectory was turned into a pantheon for the royal family. Here can be found the graves of almost all of the members of the Bragança dynasty from Joao IV (died 1656) to Amélia (died 1951); only Maria I and Pedro IV are not buried here. A stone figure in front of the graves of Carlos I and his son Luis Filipe catches the eye. The king and his successor were murdered on February first 1908 on the Praça do Comércio. The stone sarcophagi were ordered by Salazar. Previously the members of the royal family rested in wooden coffins with glass lids. Also buried here is King Charles of Rumania, who was related to the Portuguese royal family and who died in exile in Portugal in 1953.
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The Sao Vicente de Fora church in Lisbon.
