Religious Sites, Bairro Alto
Fodor's Review:
Filippo Terzi, the architect who designed São Vicente on the outskirts of the Alfama, was also responsible for this Renaissance church. He was commissioned by Jesuits and completed the church in 1574. Curb your impatience with its plain facade and venture inside. Its eight side chapels have statuary and art dating from the early 17th century. The last chapel on the left before the altar is the extraordinary 18th-century Capela de São João Baptista (Chapel of St. John the Baptist): designed and built in Rome, with rare stones and mosaics that resemble oil paintings, the chapel was taken apart, shipped to Lisbon, and reassembled here in 1747. You may find a guide who will escort you around the church and switch on the appropriate lights so the beauty of the chapel is revealed. Adjoining the church, the Museu de Arte Sacra (Museum of Sacred Art) displays a surprisingly engaging collection of clerical vestments and liturgical objects: the capes and drapes are delicately embroidered in gold, and the jewel-encrusted crosses and goblets glitter in their cases.
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