Church of Santa Engrácia

Welcome to the Pan-tee-own Nah-see-oh-nal, housed within the magnificent Church of San-tah Ain-grah-syah. As your guide and a scholar of Portuguese Baroque, I invite you to contemplate this building not just as a religious space,…

The history of San-tah Ain-grah-syah is inseparable from the 'Curse of Simão Pires.' In 1630, a young New Christian (a Jew converted to Christianity) named See-mown Pee-resh was accused of desecrating the previous church on this…

One of the most breathtaking aspects of the Pantheon is its extensive use of polychrome marble. As a scholar of decorative arts, I consider this interior to be one of the finest examples of marble inlay in Europe. …

In the side chapels of the Pantheon, we find a series of cenotaphs—monuments to heroes whose remains are located elsewhere. These cenotaphs honor the giants of the Portuguese Age of Discovery, such as Vasco da Gama, the first…

Unlike the cenotaphs, the Pantheon also contains the actual tombs of some of Portugal’s most beloved figures from the 20th and 21st centuries. One of the most visited is that of Amália Rodrigues, the 'Queen of Fado.' Her voice is…

Near the high altar, we find an exceptional piece of musical history: an 18th-century Baroque pipe organ. This instrument was not originally built for this church but was moved here from the Lisbon Cathedral. …

The final stage of our visit takes us to the very top of the building, to the terrace surrounding the great dome. Reaching this point requires climbing a series of stairs or taking an elevator, but the reward is one of the most…

As we conclude our tour of the Pan-tee-own Nah-see-oh-nal, I hope you have been moved by the combination of architectural grandeur and national significance that this building represents. We have explored the legendary 'curse'…