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The Porto's Misericórdia (charitable institution) was founded in the early 16th
century with the royal sponsorship of King Manuel. The seat was temporarily
located at the Porto's Cathedral until 1550, when the services were transferred
to the institution's premises at Rua das Flores, then called Rua de Santa
Catarina das Flores. On donated land, the institution built the parish
register, the church, the sacristy and other annexes.
The present church is the result of a compromise between the temple built in
the late 16th century and early 17th century, and its reconstruction after
1748, which followed a plan by the painter/architect Nicolau Nasoni, that is,
between the mannerist and Baroque styles.
The original church had a retreated façade. The space available was used for
the construction of the new façade and of the choir during the 18th-century
rebuilding works.
Master Manuel Luís, who was responsible for the chancel and to whom the nave is
ascribed, made the plan of the church. On 13 December 1559 the nave was
consecrated, while the chancel was only completed in 1590. The two lateral
chapels were built in the following century, namely in 1623 and 1637.
The collapse of a keystone of the vault in 1748 led to the transformation of
the temple. The original stone vault was demolished and replaced by the
beautifully decorated present stucco-covered brick vault. The new façade and
the choir were also added.
The church has only one nave, with a chancel with a rectangular arcade closed
in an apse, marked by an imposing triumphal arch, and a choir over the front
entrance. The chancel, with an orange-like full curved vault, has rectangular
and trapezoidal coffers with voluminous geometric decoration, in conformity
with the mannerist style. Its elevations are linked together in two overlapping
storeys. The lower one has a sequence of Ionic columns, and the
intercolumniation of the first two arcades on both sides form a niche. The
images of the Evangelists, sculpted in Lisbon in 1597, were placed there. The
upper storey is similar to the lower one, with its Corinthian columns and
openings instead of niches. Worthy of notice is the use of paired columns - a
direct influence of the mannerist style. The stately crossing has a double
fronton placed upon Corinthian columns. Above it, at a fast pace, garlands,
finials and other vegetal-like ornamentation idealised by Nasoni establish the
aesthetic relation between the 16th and the 18th centuries. This pace continues
laterally above the entablature.
The great Nasonian artistic subtlety can be found on the outline of the choir's
arch.
The façade has two storeys, both with an equal number of bays: to the three
portals above the arch correspond an equal number of high outlined windows on
the second storey. This addition to the ancient 16th-century church formed a
vaulted porch that occupied the small parvis. All the language natural to
Nicolau Nasoni is represented here. Frontons - interrupted and inverted -,
volutes, shells, garlands, leaf-like ornaments, alongside some abstract shapes
and tables with biblical inscriptions, everything sculpted, completes the
scenographic load inherent to the work. This is one of the most imposing and
decorated façades on which Nicolau Nasoni has materialised the plastic arts
programme particular to an artist trained in painting.
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