Igreja de São Roque

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The Igreja de São Roque ([ˈsɐ̃w ˈʁɔkɨ]; Church of Saint Roch) is a Catholic church in Lisbon, Portugal. It was the earliest Jesuit church in the Portuguese world, and one of the first Jesuit churches anywhere. The edifice served as the Society's home church in Portugal for over 200 years, before the Jesuits were expelled from that country. After the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, the church and its ancillary residence were given to the Lisbon Holy House of Mercy to replace their church and headquarters which had been destroyed. It remains a part of the Holy House of Mercy today, one of its many heritage buildings. The Igreja de São Roque was one of the few buildings in Lisbon to survive the earthquake relatively unscathed. When built in the 16th century it was the first Jesuit church designed in the “auditorium-church” style specifically for preaching. It contains a number of chapels, most in the Baroque style of the early 17th century. The most notable chapel is the 18th-century Chapel of St. John the Baptist (Capela de São João Baptista), a project by Nicola Salvi and Luigi Vanvitelli constructed in Rome of many precious stones and disassembled, shipped, and reconstructed in São Roque; at...

In 1505 Lisbon was being ravaged by the plague, which had arrived by ship from Italy. The king and the court were even forced to flee Lisbon for a while. The site of São Roque, outside the city walls (now an area known as the Bairro Alto ), became a cemetery for plague victims. At the same time the King of Portugal, Manuel I (reigned 1495–1521), sent to Venice for a relic of St. Roch, the patron saint of plague victims, whose body had been translated to that city in 1485. The relic was sent by the Venetian government, and it was carried in procession up the hill to the plague cemetery.

The inhabitants of Lisbon then decided to erect a shrine on the site to house the relic; the shrine was begun on 24 March 1506 and dedicated on 25 February 1515. This early shrine was oriented from west to east, in the medieval tradition. A “Plague Courtyard” for the burial of plague victims adjoined the shrine and was formally dedicated on 24 May 1527 by Bishop Ambrósio. At about the same time a Brotherhood (or confraternity) of St. Roch was established to oversee and take care of the shrine. Made up of people from all classes, the Brotherhood still exists today, and maintains the Chapel of St. Roch in the present church.

In 1540, after the founding of the Society of Jesus in the 1530s, King John III (1521–1557) of Portugal invited them to come to Lisbon and the first Jesuits arrived in the same year. They settled first in the Hospital de Todos-os-Santos (All Saints Hospital — now destroyed) on the east side of Rossio Square and later in the College of São Antão (where the Hospital de São José is now situated). However, they soon began looking for a larger, more permanent location for their main church, and selected the Shrine of St. Roch as their favored site. After prolonged negotiations John III organized the relinquishment of the shrine to the Jesuits. The agreement with the Brotherhood, however, included the creation of a chapel for St. Roch in the new building, and the retention of St. Roch as the patron saint of the new church. The Society of Jesus took possession of the shrine on 1 October 1553 in a ceremony at which Fr. Francisco de Borja, SJ (St. Francis Borgia, 1510–1572) preached the sermon.

The small shrine was inadequate for the Jesuits and planning began immediately for a new church building. The king wanted a new monumental building with three naves but the Society favored a plan more in keeping with the principles enunciated by the Council of Trent, emphasizing simplicity and functionality. The first stone was laid in 1555, but the building was redesigned and expanded (its present version) in 1565. The royal architect, Afonso Álvares (1557–1575), appears to have supervised the work from 1566 to 1575, up to the level of the interior cornice. The work was carried on afterwards by his nephew, Baltasar Álvares ( fl. 1570-1624), also royal architect. The building was completed by Filipe Térzi ( Filippo Terzi, 1520–1597), royal architect to King Philip II of Spain (= Philip I of Portugal, 1580–1598); Térzi made modifications to the exterior façade, the ceiling and roof, and the interior finishings.

While the earlier shrine had been oriented from west to east in the medieval tradition, the new church was oriented south to north, across the older building. The plan of church is simple and spacious — a wide single nave, a shallow squared apse, virtually no transept, and raised pulpits between recessed galleries over side chapels. This style, the “auditorium-church” ideal for preaching, became popularly known as the “Jesuit style” and was widely copied by the order throughout Portugal and in the Portuguese colonial towns in Brazil and the Far East. The simple and sober exterior of the church, characteristic of the Portuguese “plain style” ( estilo chão ) contrasts with the highly decorated Baroque interior with its glazed tiles, gilt woodwork, multi-colored statues and oil paintings.

In 1759 the Jesuits — implicated in a revolt of the nobility against King Joseph I and his prime minister, the Marquis de Pombal (1699–1782) — were expelled from Portuguese territory by Pombal and the Igreja de São Roque was confiscated along with the attached buildings and residences. Nine years later, by a Royal Charter dated 8 February 1768, the property was given to the Lisbon Holy House of Mercy, whose original church and administrative buildings were destroyed by the 1755 earthquake.

The Holy House of Mercy still owns and operates the site today. The church continues to function, and part of the Jesuit residence was turned into a museum (the Museu de São Roque ) late in the 19th century. Other parts of the complex, and later buildings erected adjacent to it, still function as the Holy House's headquarters for the city.

The decoration of the Igreja de São Roque is the result of several phases of activity throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, reflecting the ideals of either the Society of Jesus or, as in the case of the chapels, the respective brotherhoods or confraternities. It was born of the Catholic Reformation, and reflects the efforts of the Church to capture the attention of the faithful. The general decorative phases are Mannerist (the chapels of St. Francis Xavier, of the Holy Family, and of the chancel); early Baroque (Chapel of the Holy Sacrament); later Baroque (Chapels of Our Lady of the Doctrine and of Our Lady of Piety); and Roman Baroque of the 1740s (Chapel of St. John the Baptist). 19th-century renovations include the construction of the choir gallery over the main door where the pipe organ was installed; the remodeling of the screen of the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament and the erection of the gilded iron railings; also the replacement of the entrance doors.

Various parts of the church (e.g., the walls under the choir gallery and in the transept) are decorated with “diamond-point” tiles from the Triana district of Seville and dated by tradition to 1596. Elsewhere the tile decoration includes botanical elements, volutes, putti, symbols of the Passion, and the monogram of the Society of Jesus (“IHS”). In the niches above the two pulpits are white marble statues of the four Evangelists. Around the upper story of the nave is a cycle of oil painting depicting the life of Ignatius of Loyola ( c. 1491 – 1556), founder of the Society of Jesus, attributed to Domingos da Cunha, the Cabrinha, a Jesuit painter of the early 17th century.

The painted ceiling of the nave is a trompe-l'œil designed to give the illusion of barrel vaulting supported by four large arches covered in volutes and other decorative elements. Between the arches are painted squared balconies and “above” these balconies are three huge domes or cupolas rising on rings of open arches and columns. Most of this was painted between 1584 and 1586 by Francisco Venegas (fl. 1578-1590), royal painter to King Philip II. The Jesuits added the large central medallion ( The Glorification of the Cross ), as well as 8 large paintings and 12 monochrome panels depicting Biblical events. The ceiling near the front of the church was damaged in the 1755 earthquake and was rebuilt and repainted. The entire ceiling was restored in 2001 and the paint cleaned or repaired.

The Baroque organ (with 1694 pipes) in the choir gallery over the main door was built in 1784 by António Xavier Machado e Cerveira and installed in the monastery church of São Pedro de Alcântara. In the 1840s it was moved to São Roque where it was set up in the east transept, completely obscuring the Altar of the Annunciation; it was relocated to the choir gallery in the 1890s. It has been substantially rebuilt several times.

The church is made up of the chancel, eight main side-chapels in the church, as well as five other altars in the transepts.

The work of carving, gilding and upholstery of the chancel was commissioned, at specific times, by three members of the Society of Jesus. The initial carving took three years (1625 to 1628) to complete. The gilding and upholstery of the carvings followed; and then the work in the area of the throne. The design of the altar piece is attributed to Teodósio de Frias and the carving to Master Jerónimo Correia.

The composition of the altar piece, with long proportions and decorative austerity, includes sets of paired Corinthian columns mounted in two levels. The lower third of each column is decorated with acanthus garlands, volutes and hanging objects. The semi-circular pinnacle incorporates a painting in the roundel, tempera on wood, representing Christ, Saviour of the World. The altar piece is one of the most important in the Jesuit tradition: the founder of the Society and its greatest saints — Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier, Aloysius Gonzaga, and Francis Borgia — are represented in the four niches by statues, commissioned in 1630, which recently have been attributed to the Portuguese sculptor Manuel Pereira (1604–1667). The central niche of the lower portion of the altar piece houses a 17th-century statue of the Madonna and Child in upholstered wood. In front stand silvered wood statues of the four Evangelists. On the upper level is a niche for the exhibition of the Holy Sacrament — the “throne” (a characteristic Portuguese invention) usually covered by a large oil painting of a New Testament scene which changes according to the religious season. The practice of changing the scenography of the High Altar was a Jesuit innovation. The throne at São Roque (usually not visible to the public) was one of the first permanent ones to be created in Portugal. It has six Corinthian columns and four arches, round geometric elements and two large carved and gilded side panels with symbolic trees in relief. The whole forms a sort of pyramid in several levels.

The side walls supporting the vault over the altar are decorated (towards the front) with four niches containing statues, two on each side: St. Gregory Thaumaturgus (the Wonderworker) and Our Lady of the Conception, and St. Bridget and Ecce Homo (or “Our Lord of the Green Staff”). Towards the back along these side walls are four paintings representing St. Stanislaus Kostka, St. Paul Miki, St. John Martyr, and St. Diogo Martyr. The latter three are Jesuit saints martyred at Nagasaki, Japan, in 1597. See Caetano, Pintura, nos. 112-115 (vol. 1: 117-120). The attributed artist is Domingos da Cunha, the Cabrinha. The three martyrs are probably St. Paul Miki, St. John Soan de Goto, and St. Diogo (or James) Kisai (or Kizayemon), Jesuit brothers or " temporal coadjutor " in Japan.

In the centre of the platform in front of the chancel is the tomb of the first Patriarch of Lisbon, D. Tomás de Almeida, who was born in Lisbon in 1670 and died there in 1754. The tomb consists of a lead box covered with a grey marble gravestone with copper inlay, an inscription, and the Almeida coat of arms crowned by the patriarch́s tiara.

The right to be buried in a tomb built under the High Altar, as attested by a stone inscription, was given to D. João de Borja and his family. D. João de Borja, who died on 3 September 1606 in the Escorial in Spain, played an important role in the history of the Igreja de São Roque by creating a collection of reliquaries which he eventually gave to the church, some of which are exhibited in the Reliquary Altars.

This chapel (the first chapel on the right of the nave ), begun on 1 April 1634, was overseen by the Brotherhood of Our Lady of the Doctrine made up mostly of craftsmen and artisans. The main image in the altar piece is a late-16th-century painted wooden image of St. Anne with the Virgin Mary in her arms (an image known as Our Lady of the Doctrine, i.e., the Virgin Mary being indoctrinated by her mother). On the left and right side are late-17th-century sculptures of St. Joachim and St. Anne, parents of the Virgin Mary. Although built in the 17th century, the present decoration is typical of Portuguese Baroque (known as the “National Style” or “ estilo nacional ”) of the first half of the 18th century. The gilt woodwork (attributed to José Rodrigues Ramalho) covers the entire interior surface including the ceiling. It is characterized by popular Portuguese motifs — bunches of grapes, vine leaves, birds, and standing infants.

The breccia marble paneling and altar also display botanical, zoologic, anthropomorphic, geometric and allegoric motifs. This was executed by the master masons Manuel Antunes and João Teixeira and completed in 1690. The side recesses house reliquaries from the collection of D. João de Borja. The sculpture inside the glass case beneath the altar is of “Christ in Death” and dates from the 18th century.