Lisbon: Igreja de São Domingos & Graça Convent

Igreja de São Domingos

There has been a church here since the mid 13th C, at one time, it was the largest church in Lisbon.

In those former times it was the place to go if you were one of the fawning sycophantic plebs who enjoyed self subjugation, doffing ones cap watching the inbreds of another european royal dynasty preening at their weddings and funeral processions.

That all ended in 1910 with the first Portuguese Republic. Where have we gone wrong in Britain. Viva la Rebublic

Greatly restored after the massive earthquakes in the 16th and 18th C, it was designated a National monument in 1918.

This was also the home of the Portuguese Inquisition, where over time it is believed over 400 "heretics" were publicly executed.

When asked if they wanted to die as catholics the "guilty party" answered "yes", they were immediately put to death by garrotte.

If the answer was "no", they were strung up on a high post, where there was a small wooden platform. The executioner started a fire at the base of the stake. The victim was perched at such a height above the pyre that the fire would not reach beyond the lower legs.
Death was then not by choking but slowly being BBQ'd alive over a period of about one or two hours.

Religion don't ya just love it.

It is also the place where in 1506, the church and the square were the scenes of the Lisbon massacre when between 500 and 4,000 thousand of New Christians (converted Jews) were murdered by the Old Christian mob.

Religion don't ya just love it.

Speaking of fires.....on August 13th, 1959, a catastrophic fire broke out inside the church. From the early evening well into the night an estimated 100 fire-engines battled against the raging flames.

Whilst sadly two firemen lost their lives, the priest saved the bread and wine.

At daybreak the full devastation revealed, the interior of the Church was a gutted shell, Most of its treasures, relics, paintings and guilt woodcarvings were lost forever.

Once the rubble from the fire had been removed and the walls were made safe, services resumed in the church, albeit in the open air, rain made it impossible to use the church.

Work began on the construction of a temporary metal roof, enabling the 1960 Christmas celebrations to be held in the church.

Damn good roof it was still in use until 1992, when the church was closed in order to build the present-day roof,

It reopened in 1994, sympathetically restored, allowing in places the scars of the fire to be visible as a reminder.

It continues to be a perfectly functional church, where Masses are regularly celebrated and people pray, surrounded by the scarred stone, cracked slabs, and sculptures,

There was a sign, no! not one of those road to Damascus moments FFS, a proper sign it read:

"To contribute to the maintenance of this church, you can light a candle, take a brochure or make a donation (at the Reception desk, the first door to your right)"

FACT: The catholic church has assets of close on $80 billion, yes read it again. But they still ask for donations and yet allow their "flock" to live in poverty desperate for the basic human needs, whilst their popes and bishops feast off the fat of the land.

FACT: Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu the Albanian nun ( aka motherTeresa of Calcutta) died in 1997 leaving a personal fortune in the Vatican bank ( yes, my child we do have our own bank) amounting to over 100 million dollars. yes read that again. Money not donated to her but her "cause and charity" by followers and philanthropists.
Shame it was not put to full use.

"There is something beautiful in seeing the poor accept their lot, to suffer it like christ's passion. The world gains much from their suffering"

The Albanian nun

Religion don't ya just fucking love it

Graça Church and Convent

The convent was founded in the end of the 13th C, not here but elsewhere

This one was built much later, 200 years later actually, and like most buildings in Lisbon rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake, when it is estimated that 30-40,000 people were killed

The convent was rebuilt in the 16th century and restored after the 1755 earthquake and a lot of restoration work uindertaken in the 21st century.

It is now classified as a National Monument of Portugal

The convent has only been open to the great unwashed since 2017. But they must have known I was visiting as. Hmm it was closed.

What I did see though were the traditional 18th C blue tiles on the cloister walls. Retelling the story of a Catholic queen; Kelevan, who along with her followers was tortured and killed at the hands of muslims because she refused to convert to Islam.

What is interesting is that during restoration, the faces of the murderous muslims remain defaced

Fact, fiction or just religious propaganda?