Mosteiro de Santa Maria de Lorvão

DESCRIPTION AND FORMAL ANALYSIS

According to the old chronicles, the foundation of a monastery in Lorvão dates back to the 6th century. However, the earliest written documents date back to the 9th century and are later than the Christian Reconquest. At that time, the locale was entrusted to the monks of Cluny, responsible for the agrarian development of the surrounding region and the monastery was dedicated to the martyrs of Saint Mamede and Saint Pelágio.

The prosperity of the monastery was curtailed by the Muslim invasion in the 10th century and later revived by the influence of Count D. Henrique, who donated it to the bishop of Coimbra. Later, D. Teresa, daughter of the second king of Portugal, entrusted it to the Order of Cister, which established a female monastic community there, invoking Santa Maria.

The complex that is there today, in a valley surrounded by beautiful vegetation, comes mainly from the 17th and 18th centuries. The church, built between 1748 and 1761, is the work of Mateus Vicente de Oliveira, and its Baroque architecture resumes the visual language already used in Mafra. The main chapel is dominated by an imposing altarpiece surmounted by the cross of Christ and on its side walls are silver urns, relics of the Blessed Teresa and Sancha, daughters of D. Sancho I, whom the people call Saintly Queens. They are venerated over the penultimate weekend of October.

VIRGILIO LOPES