Versão portuguesa aqui.
GPS 38.56886981833489, -7.908777500765978
Capela dos Ossos comes to many people's minds when they think of Évora. Because it's scary or simply because it's a monument like any other in the city. All are spectacular, except for Évora World Heritage, but some… are even more fascinating than others!
Undoubtedly, the Capela dos Ossos is one of Évora's best-known monuments, perhaps its ex-libris. It is located at Praça 1º de Maio and is part of the no less well-known Church of São Francisco. One of the experiences in Alentejo not to be missed!
History and description
The Capela dos Ossos was built in the 17th century on the initiative of three Franciscan friars whose aim was to convey the message of the transience and fragility of human life. This message is clearly passed on to visitors right at the entrance, through the notice: “We bones that are here, we wait for yours”. It shows, deep down, the macabre taste of the baroque man for necrophilia.
The Capela dos Ossos, filled with skulls and other bones, was born in the place where the friars' dormitory and reflection room was initially. It is made up of three naves measuring around 18.70m in length and 11m in width. Natural light strategically enters these naves only through three small openings on the left side. It's a pretty dark place! Be brave…
The walls of the Capela dos Ossos and the eight pillars that make it up are covered with human bones and skulls, carefully arranged, connected by brown cement. The vaults are made of brick plastered in white and painted with motifs that symbolize or allude to death. In addition to the bones, the Capela dos Ossos is also decorated with religious statues and Renaissance and Baroque paintings.
The arcades are decorated with rows of skulls, cornices and white naves. It is estimated that there are around 5000 human skulls that can be found there, among countless bones, from the tombs of the convent church and other churches and cemeteries in the city.
In the 16th century there were close to forty-two monastic cemeteries in the city, which took up too much space. As a solution, those monks extracted the bones from the ground and used them to build and “decorate” this chapel.
The Capela dos Ossos is a monument of penitential architecture. Dedicated to Senhor dos Passos, an image known to the locals as Senhor Jesus da Casa dos Ossos. This image impressively and vividly represents the suffering of Christ on his way to Calvary with the cross on his back.
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