Convento de São Pedro de Alcântara

In Bairro Alto, the Convent of São Pedro de Alcântara preserves the memory of a war vow turned into architecture. It was founded in the seventeenth century by António Luís de Meneses, first Marquis of Marialva, after the Battle of Montes Claros, and entrusted to the Arrábidos, the most austere branch of the Franciscan family. The 1755 earthquake destroyed almost the whole complex, but the rebuilding begun in 1783 left a church where the Baroque speaks through gilded woodwork, monochrome eighteenth-century tiles and ceiling frescoes. There is also a rarer surprise: the Chapel of the Lencastres, added to the complex between 1686 and 1692, celebrated for its refined decoration and polychrome marbles. After the extinction of the religious orders, the convent passed to the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, which gave it new uses. Between courtyards, stairways and silence, the building shows how Lisbon rebuilt its memory without freezing it in place.