{"id":3618,"date":"2015-07-19T17:26:34","date_gmt":"2015-07-19T17:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/?p=3618"},"modified":"2015-07-19T17:26:34","modified_gmt":"2015-07-19T17:26:34","slug":"carmo-convent-lisbon-downtown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/?p=3618","title":{"rendered":"Carmo Convent, Lisbon Downtown"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Carmo Convent<\/b>\u00a0(Portuguese:\u00a0Convento da Ordem do Carmo<\/b><\/i><\/span>) is a historical building in\u00a0Lisbon,\u00a0Portugal. The mediaeval convent was ruined in the\u00a01755 Lisbon Earthquake, and the ruins of its\u00a0Gothic\u00a0church (the\u00a0Carmo Church<\/b>\u00a0or\u00a0Igreja do Carmo<\/b>) are the main trace of the great earthquake still visible in the city.<\/p>\n

The Carmo Convent is located in the\u00a0Chiado neighbourhood, on a hill overlooking the\u00a0Rossio\u00a0square and facing the\u00a0Lisbon Castle\u00a0hill. It is located in front of a quiet square (Carmo Square<\/i>), very close to the\u00a0Santa Justa Lift.<\/p>\n

\"carmo-ruins\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nowadays the ruined Carmo Church is used as an archaeological museum (the\u00a0Museu Arqueol\u00f3gico do Carmo<\/b>\u00a0or\u00a0Carmo Archaeological Museum<\/b>).<\/p>\n

The Carmo Convent was founded as a convent for the\u00a0Carmelite Order\u00a0in 1389 by the Portuguese knight\u00a0Nuno \u00c1lvares Pereira. \u00c1lvares Pereira was\u00a0Constable of Portugal, meaning that he was the supreme military commander after the King. At the service of\u00a0King John I, \u00c1lvares Pereira commanded the Portuguese army in the decisive\u00a0Battle of Aljubarrota\u00a0(1385), in which the Portuguese guaranteed their independence by defeating the\u00a0Castilian\u00a0army.<\/p>\n

The Carmo Convent was initially inhabited by Carmelites from\u00a0Moura\u00a0(southern Portugal), which entered the convent in 1392. In 1404, the pious \u00c1lvares Pereira donated his wealth to the convent and, in 1423, he also became a brother of the convent.<\/p>\n

On November 1, 1755, the\u00a0great earthquake\u00a0destroyed most of the convent and its church. The Convent library and its 5000 books were all lost. The convent was remodeled and eventually became a military quarter. The church was never fully rebuilt and, after a period as wood storage house, it was donated in 1864 to the Association of Portuguese Archaeologists, which turned the ruined building into a museum.<\/p>\n

In the 20th century, during the\u00a0Carnation Revolution, the Carmo Headquarters was the last stronghold of the Presidente of the\u00a0Estado Novo,\u00a0Marcelo Caetano, and the military loyal to him. The old Carmo Convent building is now used by the Republican Guard (Guarda Republicana<\/i>).<\/p>\n

The Carmo Convent and its Church were built between 1389 and 1423 in the plain\u00a0Gothic\u00a0style typical for the\u00a0mendicant religious orders. There are also influences from the\u00a0Monastery of Batalha, which had been founded by King John I and was being built at that same time. Compared to the other Gothic churches of the city, the Carmo Church was said to be the most imposing in its architecture and decoration.<\/p>\n

The church has a Latin cross\u00a0floorplan. The main facade has a portal with several\u00a0archivolts\u00a0and\u00a0capitals\u00a0decorated with vegetal and anthropomorphic motifs. The\u00a0rose window\u00a0over the portal is partially destroyed. The south side of the church is reinforced by five flying buttresses, added in 1399 after the south wall collapsed during the construction work. The old convent, located to the right of the facade, has been rebuilt in\u00a0neo-Gothic\u00a0style in the early 20th century.<\/p>\n

The church interior has a\u00a0nave\u00a0with three\u00a0aisles\u00a0and an\u00a0apse\u00a0with a main chapel and four side chapels. The stone roof over the nave collapsed after the earthquake and was never rebuilt, and only the pointed arches between the pillars have survived.<\/p>\n

The nave and apse of the Carmo Church are the setting for a small archaeological museum, with pieces from all periods of Portuguese history. The nave has a series of tombs, fountains, windows and other architectural relics from different places and styles.<\/p>\n

The old apse chapels are also used as exhibition rooms. One of them houses notable pre-historical objects excavated from a fortification near\u00a0Azambuja\u00a0(3500\u20131500 BC).<\/p>\n

The group of Gothic tombs include that of\u00a0Fern\u00e3o Sanches<\/i>, a bastard son of King\u00a0Dinis I, (early 14th century), decorated with scenes of\u00a0boar\u00a0hunting, as well as the magnificent tomb of\u00a0King Ferdinand I\u00a0(reign 1367-1383), transferred to the museum from the Franciscan Convent of\u00a0Santar\u00e9m. Other notable exhibits include a statue of a 12th-century king (perhaps\u00a0Afonso Henriques), Spanish-Moorish\u00a0azulejos\u00a0and objects from the\u00a0Roman\u00a0and\u00a0Visigoth\u00a0periods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Carmo Convent\u00a0(Portuguese:\u00a0Convento da Ordem do Carmo) is a historical building in\u00a0Lisbon,\u00a0Portugal. The mediaeval convent was ruined in the\u00a01755 Lisbon Earthquake, and the ruins of its\u00a0Gothic\u00a0church (the\u00a0Carmo Church\u00a0or\u00a0Igreja do Carmo) are the main trace of the great earthquake still visible in the city. The Carmo Convent is located in the\u00a0Chiado neighbourhood, on a hill overlooking the\u00a0Rossio\u00a0square […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3619,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[146,42],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3618"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3618"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3621,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3618\/revisions\/3621"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}