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Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Visit the Church of Santa Cruz - São Lázaro (Braga)

The Church of Santa Cruz, located in the parish of São Lázaro, was built in the 17th century in Mannerist Baroque style, and has unusual gilded carving inside. The nave is very tall and is formed by a vaulted stone quarry. The interior of the church was the feature of Brother José de Santo António Vilaça. Note the gilded carving of the organ and the pulpits. The exterior is all in stone worked with central symmetry.
The central part of the facade is divided in two registers, with finial in pediment and fins.
On the first level, four Doric columns corrugated with entablature, whose frieze presents, in relief, the instruments of the Passion of Christ, with the figure of the rooster at each end, evoking the denial of Peter.
The cloths are torn by three portals, topped by cartons with the following inscriptions, from left to right.
On the second landing there are four striated Ionic pilasters, with entablature interrupted by a telescope that extends to the pediment. The cloths have ornamental pictures (the sides top windows): in the center, the Santa Cruz with glitter and two crossed masts; on the left side, a fruit tree (the tree of Paradise); on the right side, a palm tree with a royal crown.
Underneath, at the level of the pedestals, three cards with inscriptions of verses of liturgical hymns that the pictures illustrate.
In the pediment, three medallions surround the oculus. The superior has superimposed the stone of arms of D. João VI, placed when this one, 11 of October of 1822, elevated the brotherhood of Santa Cruz to the category of Real. On the sides, the inscriptions refer to the date of 1736. To crown the set, three sculptures: St. Helena supporting the Cross, flanked by two figures in genuflection, armor and mantle, with the scepter and crown at the feet (judges are represented by the Emperor Constantine and D. Afonso Henriques).

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