Text on the Chapel of Évora Cathedral

The last decade of the seventeenth century and the first half of the next century saw two major construction works in Évora Cathedral. The first of these constructions was the new building to house the College of the Cathedral’s choirboys and the second a new main chapel for the Cathedral.

The first of these buildings is clearly seen in the video below. It is the “L” shape building attached to the Cathedral cloister (at the left). In the opposite side is the Archiepiscopal Palace (now the Évora Museum). This new building was very important in the Cathedral’s music activity for it gave new conditions to the welfare of the choirboys and new spaces for their lodging and activities.

The big undertaking of the first half of the eighteenth century was the building of the new main chapel of the Cathedral. It limited the musical services in the temple that, during the works, were temporarily placed in the central nave. During this time Pedro Vaz Rego held the post of chapel master of the Cathedral and most of his lifetime he work in a building under construction. His successor in that post, Ignácio António Celestino was the master present during the consecration of the new chapel.

This article addresses the impact that these two construction works had on the musical activity of both Rego and Celestino, relating the work of several artists among them several well-known sculptors and painters during a period that Évora was the working place of many of the finest Portuguese and Italian artists.

As most of my published articles, it is written in Portuguese, and can be downloaded at Humanities Commons.