Not long ago, I was showing you a lovely church with a very ugly lamp. Right here. And right across the street there was another lovely church, without any nasty lamps that would ruin the interior.
The abundance of churches in the older part of Lisbon is mind-blowing. Not complaining... It is nice to visit them. But it looks like it is mandatory to have at least one church and coffee shop on each street :)
Church of Our Lady of the Incarnation
And so we have another one that, from the outside, doesn't seem too attractive. Rather narrow, white facade (but with some beautiful ornaments) is easy to miss. It is right on the corner of the street and tucked between buildings. But I was in the mood of checking every single one I was passing by that day, so I did not miss this one either. And of course it was worth it.
Plenty of large paintings, decorated columns, dark stone that give this nice coolness and not a bit of white wall sticking out. Lovely :)
A little bit of history:
To construct the Church of the Encarnação in 1702 part of the old 14th century walls were demolished but the tower located to the south was incorporated as happened with the Church of Loreto, over on the other side of the street. The two churches hence delineate one of the gateways to the city.
The initial church was destroyed by the 1755 earthquake. It was subsequently restored by Manuel de Sousa in 1784 in accordance with the religious architectural guidelines set down by the Marquis of Pombal in his new plan for downtown Lisbon. The neo-classical façade, with certain rocaille decorative adornments, includes images of St. Catherine that were previously part of the medieval gate.
source
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And now we can admire the beautiful painted (by Simão Caetano Nunes) ceiling and the alter.
There were some people around, which I normally do not like to have on the photos, but at least you can see the scale. It is not a very big church compared to others in Lisbon, but it is still pretty impressive.
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More painted ceilings, because why not. Notice the arched corners also covered in some biblical scenes. It is a shame I could not find too many articles online about it.
And a stunning carved one for a chance. As if it was from another place.
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Here is a Google view of both both of them. Facing each other :)
Google maps
And no, I did not forget to shoot it from the outside. I getting a hang of it. Finally :p
Shot with Nikon D5500 + Nikkor 18-55 lens
All photos and text are my own.
