Monastery of Santa Cruz

Overview

The Monastery of Santa Cruz is the church in Coimbra’s lower town where the first two kings of Portugal, Afonso Henriques and Sancho I, are buried, which makes it a National Pantheon; founded in 1131 by St Theotonius for the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross, it was the most important monastic house of the young kingdom and its school and library the meeting place of its elite. Nothing of the Romanesque building survives above ground: what you see is Manuel I’s rebuilding of the early 16th century, with the royal tombs recut by Nicolau Chanterene in 1530.

It is a short, dense visit in the middle of the Baixa, on the Praça 8 de Maio next to the Café Santa Cruz that occupies its former chapel: the Manueline-Renaissance portal, the tombs, the Cloister of Silence and the chapter house, for €3.

History

Theotonius founded the community in 1131 outside the city walls and was its first prior; church and monastery went up between 1132 and 1223, and papal privileges and royal grants made the house rich and its scriptorium the instrument of Afonso Henriques’s consolidation of power, which is why he chose to be buried here. St Anthony of Padua, born in Lisbon, was a canon here in charge of hospitality, and it was the passing of the relics of the Franciscan martyrs of Morocco through the monastery that led him to leave for the new order.

In the first half of the 16th century Manuel I, who had taken the monastery under his protection, rebuilt it: Diogo de Boitaca laid out the Manueline church and the chapter house, Marcos Pires finished the church, St Michael’s chapel and the Cloister of Silence, and Chanterene carved the main portal between 1522 and 1525 and, in 1530, the new tombs of the two kings in the main chapel. Diogo de Castilho, Jean de Rouen, Cristóvão de Figueiredo and Vasco Fernandes all worked here through the century; the sacristy and its 16th-century paintings are 17th-century additions.

Visiting

The church is open Monday to Saturday from 11:30 to 16:30 and Sunday from 14:00 to 17:00, entry €3. Start with Chanterene’s portal, the emblem of the whole complex, where Manueline fantasy meets Renaissance order; inside, the single Manueline nave leads to the main chapel with the two kings’ tombs on either side, Afonso Henriques and Sancho I lying in Renaissance niches carved with scenes and saints.

The ticket continues to the chapter house with its ribbed and basket-handle vaults, the Cloister of Silence and the sacristy with its canvases; the pulpit and the choir stalls are the other things to look for. The Café Santa Cruz next door, in the old chapel, is the place for a coffee afterwards.

Tips

• Hours are short and the church closes for lunch and services; the afternoon slot on Sunday is the only one that day.
• The portal is eroded and best read in low morning light from across the square.
• This is the Baixa’s church; the university’s two cathedrals are on the hill above and a separate visit.
• Coimbra’s municipal holiday on 4 July, for Queen Isabel, brings a night march of penitents and fireworks past the square.

Nearby

• Café Santa Cruz: next door.
• Old Cathedral: ten minutes up the Quebra Costas steps.
• University of Coimbra: 15 minutes uphill.
• Rua das Azeiteiras restaurants: three minutes.