Igreja de Jesus de Setúbal

The convent church of Jesus was begun in 1490 and finished around 1494 to a design by Diogo Boitac, and it is generally taken as the first building in the Manueline manner - the Portuguese late Gothic that would produce Jerónimos and Batalha's unfinished chapels. What makes it the first is the columns: six shafts of pink and grey Arrábida breccia marble, each carved in a spiral twist so they read as ropes rising into the vault, where the ribs continue the twisting. Boitac went on to work at Jerónimos, and the vocabulary he tried here shaped everything after. The convent buildings hold the Setúbal museum, whose collection includes a set of fifteenth-century Portuguese primitive panels from the church's original altarpiece, some of the best of their period. The church was heavily damaged in 1755 and restored in the nineteenth century.

History

Justa Rodrigues Pereira, a noblewoman of the royal court, founded the monastery outside Setúbal's walls around 1490, and from 1491 King John II paid for the building, entrusting it to the architect Diogo de Boitaca. Most of the church was built between 1490 and 1495, Poor Clare nuns were living here by 1496, and under Manuel I the nave was given a stone vault in place of the wooden ceiling first planned; it was declared a national monument in 1992 (Wikipedia, Monastery of Jesus of Setúbal).

What's there

• The twisted columns - six spiral shafts of Arrábida marble reading as ropes.
• The vault - ribs continuing the twist across the ceiling.
• The 1494 date - generally accepted as the first Manueline building.
• The museum panels - fifteenth-century primitives from the original altarpiece.

When to go

Year-round. One hour including the museum. Both close on Mondays and over lunch.

Practical notes

Small - the church is a single space. Church and museum hours differ and both are limited. Photography is restricted. Setúbal city centre around it is ordinary and offers little else.

Nearby

Setúbal's fish market and the Sado boats are close; the Arrábida park is west.

Key facts