Igreja de Santiago - Santiago do Cacém, Portugal
Posted by: 
tmob
N 38° 00.848 W 008° 41.854
29S E 526547 N 4207426
The Church of Santiago, was declared as a National Monument on November 30th, 1922
Waymark Code: WMDP7D
Location: Setúbal, Portugal
Date Posted: 02/09/2012
Views: 5
The church of Santiago do Cacém, whose origin is thought to date back to the thirteenth century, was the subject of multiple work campaigns, preserving, nowadays, characteristic elements from each of the periods which marked the building. From the Gothic church, remains the southern portal, called the Porta do Sol.
D. Vataça Lescaris, the Greek princess, who came to Portugal to be maid of honor of the future Queen D. Isabel, wife of D. Dinis, held the lordship of Santiago do Cacém between 1282 and 1302, pushing some reforms in the temple.
In 1530 it was time to Pantoja Alonso Peres, Captain-General of Santiago, to sponsor a profound intervention that included the rebuilding of the chancel.
In the early eighteenth century there are reports of a new intervention, but whose scope is difficult to determine, since the 1755 earthquake heavily damaged the church, being necessary to transfer the seat of the parish to the church of Our Lady of the Monte, where it remained until 1830. The reconstruction works took place between 1796 and 1830, changing the orientation of the temple, whose main entry now corresponds to the old head. For this reason, the bell tower now stands at the head.
The new facade uses a baroque language, divided into three scenes that correspond to the number of naves from the inside.
Later, two fires, one in 1895 and another in 1912 caused more damage to building, leading to a new transfer of the parish seat. The church reopened in 1924 to be subjected, in the 1930s, to a intervention of the Directorate General for National Buildings and Monuments (DGEMN) which emphasized the cinquecentist expression of the its interior.
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