"The church of Nossa Senhora da Conceição, Portimão, is the temple that best illustrates the time of the founding of the village.
Its construction was due to the first grantee of the locality, D. Gonçalo Vaz de Castelo-Branco, comptroller of the Treasury of King Afonso V and sworn in by that monarch in 1476.
Shortly before the 1755 earthquake still existed on the main portal, a tombstone refering the intervention of this noble in the building of the church, and his Coat of Arms was discovered a few years ago, next to the temple, .
The church was greatly modified in the eighteenth century, but still retains the main portal (Late Portuguese Gothic) clearly inluenced by one of the most important artistic movements of the second half of the fifteenth century, the influence of the Monastery of Batalha (Built in honor of the Portuguese Victory over the Spanish/Castelan in the Battle of Aljubarrota). This aesthetic choice, transposed the flowerbeds of the Battle (in the center of Portugal) for the Southern Vila Nova de Portimão, due to the proximity of Silves, whose cathedral was being finalized, in the 1470s.
It is likely that this church works have been prolonged through the first decades of the sixteenth century in a successive enrichment of the interior. The fact that there are still some Manueline holy water fonts, based on corbels decorated with vegetal elements, characteristic from the time of King D. Manuel´s Gothic points in that direction. The evolution of the temple during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is unknown, except for a few guilds that were installed here. A sixteenth century image, representing St. Peter, should have been held to fill the altarpiece, a hypothesis that, if confirmed, will reveal the artistic importance of this temple, a clear peak height of the village importance.
As said before, the 1755 earthquake caused severe damage in the church, and the worship was transfered until 1786 to the Igreja do Corpo Santo (Holy Body Church ). Since the beginning of the eighteenth century that the interior of the temple was being reformed, as evidenced by the altarpiece, "commissioned in 1721 by sculptor Manuel Martins", "the greatest carver Algarve of his time ", with numerous works scattered throughout the province. This altarpiece would eventually not be terminated by Manuel Martins, who left work in 1724, "probably due to missing funds".
However, the earthquake was largely responsible for the almost complete overhaul of the church. The largest change occurred in the main façade, whose crowning achievement has become an element of great scenic impact, artistically cataloged as part late Baroque, common to some important churches in Algarve. Moreover, this construction was rather hasty, like so many who have made after the mega-earthquake. In the bell tower were applied indiscriminately, fragments of the building before the collapse, as tombstones and slabs. The general layout of the temple, with its three naves of four legs, was not changed, which shows loyalty to a foundational plan consistently designated Gothic Parish. However, all components have been updated by abolishing the pointed arches, the the chapiters with vegetal motifs, etc.."
(Text adapted from Portuguese Heritage website - IGESPAR - (
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