Senhor dos Mártires - Alcácer do Sal, Portugal - Património Português (Portuguese Heritage) on Waymarking.com

The Senhor dos Martires Church (Lord of the Martyrs) is a Shrine located outside the walls of the castle of Alcacer do Sal.

Built in the XIII century, the sanctuary occupies a place of great strategic importance. It is visible from the castle of Alcacer, and, from where it stands you can watch the curve made by the River Sado towards the north. It´s also in this sector the sandstone escarpment that develops from the castle hill disappears into the broad valley that facilitates access to the interior.

Since its 'foundation' in the middle of the thirteenth century, became a place of Marian devotion, with the name of Santa Maria dos Martires (St. Mary of the Martyrs) and shortly after was chosen by the Masters of the Order of Santiago for it´s eternal rest. It was a sacred space of enormous prestige and soon, miracles were attributed to it, but becoming Commendation of the Order of Santiago and guardian of the countryside surrounding the city of Alcacer was the fact that maintained an active approach and worship of the sacred that reached our days.

If there is no doubt about the importance of this sanctuary and the Christian worship since the thirteenth century, there are a number of issues that remain obscure and have not been the subject of much thought: Why have chosen this moment to lift the sanctuary, which arises out of the walls in a region at war and that use in it´s XIII´s century core a strong masonry building in an area clearly in deficit of good stone for construction?


The church building has a great architectural value and comprises the body of the church, extended by a vaulted chancel and a square porch.
On the right side of the church is the Chapel of the Treasury (thirteenth century), with the small independent sanctuary. There are two other chapels.
The Masters Chappel (or St. Bartholomew), built by command of Garcia Perez, in 1333, an unusual and sublime example of Gothic of the XIII century where we can find the image of Nossa Senhora da Cinta (Our Lady of the Girdle), object of great devotion by the mothers on the eve of birth.
And the sepulchral chapel of Maria de Resende, built to house the tomb of her husband, Diogo.

Text adapted from (http://coord.info/GC11WKC) by my good friend Almeidara and (http://www.cm-alcacerdosal.pt/)

Designação (Name): Igreja do Senhor dos Mártires, Capela de São Bartolomeu e capelas do séc. XIII e de Maria Resende Categoria de protecção (Classification): Classificado como IIP - Imóvel de Interesse Público Categoria/Tipologia (Type of heritage): Arquitectura Religiosa / Igreja Concelho (City): Alcácer do Sal Página do Património na base de dados da DGPC (Page of the Heritage at the DGPC database): [Web Link] Wikipedia: Not listed

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Date Logged Log   06/27/2015 AlexCatarina visited it