Viseu Cathedral

The Sé de Viseu or Viseu Cathedral is built on the highest point of the city of Viseu in Portugal and seat of the Bishop of Viseu. The architectural history dates back to the year 1094.

History

From 1094 to 1114 the first cathedral was built on the site of the present cathedral. From 1289 to 1313 under King Dom Dinis was the new cathedral, which was in 1379 equipped with a first cloister. The first ancestor of today's cloister next to the entrance portal was 1455th The main portal was created 1513th In the 16th century, the cloister was expanded and built the sacristy. 1640 the portal was redesigned in Baroque style. Since then, the church has been left largely in the external form, but regularly refurbished.

Architecture

The actual cathedral is Romanesque. She is a three-nave, Romanesque columns support a Manueline been designed vault. In memory of the time when the King Cathedral Church of Portugal was to decorate the royal coat of arms keystones. The nave contains a new age for the old and ornate choir stalls. In the right aisle is the baptistry, which is largely kept in the original Romanesque style.

In the left aisle, the rise is to the gallery. Above the Cathedral Museum, which in addition to the gallery, the upper gallery of the cloister and north of the upper floor of the chapter house begins. Here parts of the cathedral treasury demonstrated, including a five-hundred -year-old Ivory monstrance.

Location

On the highest point in the city is the Largo da Sé (Cathedral Square ). The actual cathedral is located towards the east, to the north, the former Bishop's Palace closes at, today's Museu Grão Vasco ( museum of the great Vasco ) on. In this museum, among others, former altar of the cathedral are shown, which were created by the painter Vasco Fernandes ( 1480-1543 ). Right next to the cathedral and cloister there is a massive wall with a building at the end, from the upper floor of the cloister as a viaduct built over the wall is accessible. Opposite the cathedral, at the western end of the cathedral square, the Igreja da Misericordia, a Baroque church.

Since 2009, the Cathedral Square from the west along the Rio Pavia located exhibition and festival grounds Viseus a cable car can be reached.