the first portuguese cathedral of the 21st century
Not the cathedral you were expecting to find. The current cathedral of Bragança was inaugurated on 7 October 2001 and is the first Portuguese cathedral built in the 21st century. The project is by architect Luís Vassalo Rosa, with a pentagonal design and an assembly area in amphitheatre format. Ten thousand square metres in total.
The city had been a bishopric seat since 1764, when the Diocese moved from Miranda do Douro to Bragança. The church used during those 237 years was the old Jesuit college church, still known today as the Igreja da Sé Velha. In 1768, sixteen years after receiving the episcopal seat, Bishop D. Frei Aleixo was already writing to the Marquis of Pombal asking for a new cathedral. The first stone was laid in 1982; construction effectively began in 1988; the inauguration came in 2001. Two hundred and thirty-three years of waiting.
The cathedral is dedicated to Nossa Senhora Rainha. The interior is designed to respond to the region: the tabernacle takes the geographical shape of the Bragança district, and the ceramic panel behind the main altar, by Mário Silva, shows a Christ with the features of people from the transmontane northeast. Materials, the garden vegetation and the orientation of the doors all come from the same principle: a cathedral made for this place, not imported from somewhere else.
It stands apart from the historic centre, on Av. Eng. Amaro da Costa. The Sé Velha is still a few kilometres away and worth visiting for its Baroque interior. The two say different things about the city.
what you'll find inside
- contemporary architecture by Vassalo Rosa, with a pentagonal design and an assembly area in amphitheatre format
- ten thousand square metres in total
- the tabernacle shaped like the Bragança district
- the ceramic panel by Mário Silva behind the main altar
