The Club took an interesting trip to Viana do Castelo, Vila Nova da Cerveira and Santiago de Compostela.
After lunch in Viana do Castelo, we visited the beautiful Church of the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity, accompanied by its President who gave us a guided tour. The church, part of the female Benedictine monastery founded in 1510, was rebuilt between 1707 and 1737 in the Baroque style.
The church is covered by a beautiful painted mastic ceiling made up of 45 coffered panels depicting the ‘Life of St Anne’ and the ‘Infancy of Our Lady’ (the body of the church) and four dozen panels smaller than those in the nave, purely decorative, forming the ceiling of the chancel. The walls of the church are covered in eighteenth-century carpet tiles.
The side altars and the sub-chorus feature a carved armchair from the convent’s foundation, painted in the pretence of charcoal, made up of thirty-six chairs on which there is a magnificent gilded carving involving paintings on canvas and wood from the period depicting five steps in the life of Christ.
We also visited the Costume Museum and the Sá de Miranda Theatre, inaugurated on 29 April 1885. It is an Italian-style theatre, designed by José Geraldo da Silva Sardinha, with a horseshoe-shaped stage and three rows of boxes, with a capacity of 400 seats.
In Vila Nova da Cerveira we organised a guided tour of the XXIII Cerveira International Art Biennale under the theme ‘Are you Free?’.
After visiting the exhibition, we took a stroll through the historic centre of the beautiful town, where we discovered some of the seven chapels of the Way of the Cross scattered throughout the streets and alleys. We visited the Mother Church and the main square or Terreiro, as they call it.
Church of São Cipriano or Matriz, of 16th century origin, with a high altar whose tabernacle is surrounded by angels and flanked by two quadrangular niches with sculptures depicting the Adoration of the Magi and the scene of the Last Judgement.
In the afternoon, in Santiago de Compostela, we had a guided tour of the Cathedral and on the last day we had a guided tour of the beautiful Portico de la Gloria.
Construction of the current cathedral began in 1075, during the reign of Alfonso VI, and it was definitively consecrated in April 1211 by Archbishop Pedro Muñiz, in the presence of King Alfonso IX of León. The Romanesque plan is in the shape of a traditional Latin cross with three aisles in the nave and transepts. From east to west, the main nave is around 94 metres long inside. The transept is much longer than usual for a pilgrimage church, measuring around 63 metres from north to south, making it the largest Romanesque church in Spain.
The High Altar of Santiago de Compostela Cathedral was built in the Romanesque style in the 13th century, but nothing remains of this altar except the statue of St James in the Embrace. Today, the main altar and its exuberant decoration are in the Baroque style and date from the 17th century, representing a marvellous intervention of Baroque architecture in the Romanesque cathedral. On the high altar, St James is the most prominent element. He appears three times on the altar, each representing a different aspect. At the top, crowning the structure, is St James the Knight, triumphant on a white horse, accompanied by the cardinal virtues in the corners. In the middle space is St James the Pilgrim, accompanied by kings Alfonso II, Ramiro I, Ferdinand the Catholic and Philip IV. In the space behind the altar, there is a 1211 image of St James the Apostle, seated, made of polychrome stone, dressed as a pilgrim with a silver sclavin profusely adorned with precious stones, with a card that reads ‘Hic est corpus divi Iacobi Apostoli et Hispaniarum Patroni’ (this is the body of St James the Apostle and Patron of Spain), which the pilgrims will embrace as a symbol of gratitude, fulfilment and spirituality.
The Glory Portico is a Romanesque portico made by Master Mateus and his workshop, commissioned by King Ferdinand II of Galicia and León, for which he donated one hundred morabitinos a year between 1168 and 1188, the date inscribed on the stone as an indication of its finish. However, the completion of the complex took until 1211, when the temple was consecrated in the presence of King Alfonso IX. It consists of three half-point arches that correspond to each of the church’s three naves, supported by thick pillars with leaning columns. The central arch is the largest (twice as long as each of the side arches), the only one with a tympanum and is divided by a central column, the mainel, with the figure of St James.
The central arch displays the apocalyptic vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem: the risen Christ, surrounded by the four Evangelists and their emblems: Luke writes his Gospel on a bull, John on an eagle, Mark on a lion, while Matthew appears with a box, his tax collector. In the archivolt, the 24 elders of the Apocalypse speak to each other, tuning their instruments (violas, zithers, harps, lutes, accordions) to sing the song of Glory.
The left side of the portico is dedicated to the Old Testament and the Jewish people, while the right side represents the New Testament and the Gentiles. The left side arch is supported by columns representing the prophets Moses, Isaiah, Daniel and Jeremiah. The right arch, on the other hand, is dedicated to the Last Judgement and is supported by figures of the apostles: Peter, Paul, James and John.
In the mainel, the cathedral’s patron saint, the Apostle James, dominates the central marble column. The seated figure of St James the Apostle, holding a pilgrim’s staff in the shape of a tau with lions at the tips, as patron of the basilica, welcomes pilgrims. St James appears holding a scroll on which is written ‘misit me Dominus’ (the Lord has sent me).
Santiago stands on a magnificently carved column, the Tree of Jesse, which ends in a polychrome capital depicting the Trinity. God the Father with the Christ Child kneeling and the Holy Spirit as a dove above them. On the sides, pairs of turial angels pay homage to them.
After lunch in Pontevedra, we took a short stroll around the city before returning to Lisbon to visit the Sanctuary of the Pilgrim Virgin, which combines Baroque and Neoclassical styles. It was built between 1778 and 1832, according to plans by Antonio de Souto and Bernardo José de Mier, and the first mass was celebrated in 1792. The major neoclassical altarpiece was made in 1789 by Melchor de Prado. The Pilgrim Virgin is considered the patron saint of all pilgrims who walk the Way of St James.
