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Batalha Monastery
We jumped up Wednesday morning and met Michael and Ann at the
bus stop, Ann took charge of getting us to town and on the right bus to Batalha
to see The Santa Maria da Victoria which is a Dominican monastery, in the District of Leiria. It is one of the best and original examples
of late Gothic architecture in
Portugal, intermingled with the Manuline style. It amazes the onlooker with its profusion of gables, spires,
pinnacles, spires and
buttresses. It has become a symbol of
national pride.
The first view you see of the monastery, the
simple but beautiful altar and "Who is he trying to kid" in his "saintly
pose"
The monastery was built to thank the Virgin Mary for the
Portugese victory over the Castilians in the Battle of Aljubarrota in 1385,
fulfilling a promise of King Joao I. The battle put an end to the 1383-1385
crisis.The monastery took two centuries to build, starting in 1386 and ending
circa 1517, spanning the reign of seven kings. It took the efforts of fifteen
architects (Mestre das Obras da Batalha), but for seven of them the title
was no more than an honorary title bestowed on them. The construction required
an enormous effort, using extraordinary resources of men and material. New
techniques and artistic styles, hitherto unknown in Portugal, were deployed.
Work began in 1386 by the Portuguese architect Afonso Domingues who continued
until 1402. He drew up the plan and many of the structures in the church and the
cloister are his doing. His style was essentially Rayonnant Gothic, however
there are influences from the English Perpendicular Period. There are
similarities with the façade of York Minster and with the nave and transept of
Canterbury Cathedral
He was succeeded by Huguet from 1402 to 1438. This architect,
who was probably from Catalonian descent, introduced the Flamboyant Gothic
style. This is manifest in the main façade, the dome of the square chapter
house, the Founder's Chapel, the basic structure of the Imperfect Chapels and
the north and east naves of the main cloister. He raised the height of the nave
to 32.46 m. By altering the proportions he made the interior of the church even
seem narrower. he also completed the transept but he died before he could finish
the Imperfect Chapels.
 
During the reign of Afonso V of Portugal, the Portuguese
architect Fernao de Evora continued the construction between 1448 and 1477. He
added the Cloister of Afonso V. He was succeeded by the architect Mateus
Fernandes the Elder in the period 1480-1515. This master of the Manueline style
worked on the portal of the Capelas Imperfeitas. Together with the famous Diogo
Boitac he realized the tracery of the arcades in the Claustro Real. Work on the
monastery continued into the reign of John III of Portyugal with the
addition of the fine Renaissance tribune (1532) by Joao de Castillo. The
construction came to a halt, when the king decided to put all his efforts in the
construction of the Jeronimos Monastery in Lisbon.
The earthquake of 1755 did some damage, but much greater damage
was inflicted by the Napoleonic troops of marshall Massena, who sacked and
burned the complex in 1810 and 1811. When the Dominicans were ousted from the
complex in 1834, the church and monastery were abandoned and left to fall in
ruins. In 1840 king Ferdinand II of Portugal started a restoration program of
the abandoned monastery in ruins, saving this jewel of Gothic architecture. The
restoration would last till the early years of the 20th century. It was declared
a national monument in 1907. In 1980 the monastery was turned into a museum.
The Batalha Abbey was added in 1983 by the UNESCO to its list of World
Heritage sites.
 
Skipper by the tomb of Henry the
Navigator, supposed to be me ( (as I love navigating) but the pictures were
gross due to my boredom at the ageing process waiting for them to be taken),
amazing doorway, outside.
The church is vast and narrow (22m) in
proportion to its height (32.4 m). The nave was raised to its present height by
the second architect Huguet, altering the proportions of the church and giving
it its present aspect. Its interior gives a sober and bare impression by its
complete lack of ornaments and statues in the nave. The ribbed vaults, supported
by compound piers, are closed by ornamented keystones. Light enters the church
through ten stained-glass windows of the clerestory and the tall, traceried
windows in the side walls and the transept and through the two rows of lanciform
windows in the choir. The choir extends into two-bay transepts and consists of
five apsidal chapels, with the central one projecting.
Michael in front King Joao and Queen
Philippa, The wall of tombs with stain glassed windows, this fella not happy at
spending eternity as a coffin support.
This square chapel was built between 1426 and 1434 by the
architect Huguet on orders of King João I to become the first royal pantheon in
Portugal. It gives a perfect synthesis between Flamboyant Gothic and the English
Perpendicular style, as Philippa of Lancaster had brought along a few English
architects. The chapel consists of three notional bays and a central octagon
buttressed by eight piers, adorned with crockets, supporting deeply stilted
arches. The joint tomb of king João I and his wife Philippa of Lancaster stands
under the star vault of the octagon. Their statues lie in full regalia, with
clasped hands (expressing the good relations between Portugal and England) and
heads resting on a pillow, under elaborately ornamented baldachins. The coats of
arms of the Houses of Aviz and Lancaster are put on top of these baldachins,
together with the insignia of the Order of the Garter. On the cover plate of the
tomb are inscribed in repetition the motto of the king Por bem (For the
better) and the queen Yl me plet (Il me plaît - I'm pleased).
This octagon is surrounded by an ambulatory with complex
vaulting. At the south wall stand from left to right in a row of recessed arches
the tombs of their for sons : prince D. Pedro, Henry the Navigator (under a
baldachin), D. João and D. Fernando (also called Infante Santo). D.
Fernando died in Fez as a prisoner of the Moors. The three tombs on the west
wall are copies of the originals of King Afonso V (1433-1481), John II
(1445-1495) (empty because the soldiers of Massena have thrown away the bones)
and his son D. Afonso (who died through an accident at the age of
seventeen).
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