Casa do Cabido: A Building for the Porto Cathedral Chapter

yatrika

2 weeks ago

A New Home for the Cathedral Chapter

The present Casa do Cabido was not the first building used by the Porto Cathedral Chapter. An earlier Chapter House, built in the late 16th century, stood within the cloister near the Chapel of São Vicente. Over time, the building deteriorated, partly because of water draining from the adjoining chapel roof, and it was also considered too small and inconveniently located. The Chapter therefore decided to replace it with a larger building on the western side of the cloister.

Plans for the new Casa do Cabido were prepared in 1709, and the present building was constructed beginning in 1717 under the direction of João Pereira dos Santos. Part of the old Chapter building initially remained standing but was later removed when Nicolau Nasoni constructed the staircase providing access to the upper cloister. The new Casa do Cabido brought the Chapter’s administrative, meeting, storage, and ceremonial spaces together in the three-story building that survives today.

Although constructed between 1717 and 1719, during the emergence of the Baroque style in Porto, its overall design retains the symmetry, regular proportions, and modest decoration associated with the earlier Mannerist architectural tradition.

The facade combines white-plastered masonry with exposed granite architectural elements. Pilastered corners, horizontal divisions between the levels, regularly arranged windows, carved window surrounds, and wrought-iron balconies provide most of its decoration. The arrangement of the building also reflects its function: the lower floors contain interconnected rooms with brick-and-plaster barrel and groin vaults, while the upper floor contains the more important Chapter rooms, culminating in the richly decorated Chapter House.

The Top Floor: The Chapter Rooms

Cloister-facing wall of the Casa do Cabido

The top floor of the Casa do Cabido is the most interesting part of the building for visitors, containing three richly decorated rooms that reflect the grandeur and opulence of the Cathedral Chapter over the centuries.

The three rooms are interconnected, allowing visitors to walk through them in sequence. Visitors typically enter through a doorway near the southwest corner of the upper cloister terrace, which leads first into the Archive Room (Cartório). From there, they continue through the Chapter House (Sala Capitular) and into the Antecabido at the northern end. The Antecabido has another doorway opening onto the terrace near the staircase that connects the lower and upper levels of the cloister and continues toward the southern bell tower.

The doorway visible near the corner is the entrance to the Archive Room. The eye-catching azulejo tilework covering the cloister-facing wall of the Casa do Cabido depicts scenes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, surrounded by decorative figures, urns, cherubs, and countryside vignettes set within ornate scrollwork cartouches.

The Archive Room (Cartório): Preserving the Chapter’s Records

The Cartório once served as the records office of the Cathedral Chapter, where documents relating to the administration of the cathedral, its properties, income, privileges, legal affairs, and other institutional matters were preserved. These records were important not only for administration but also for documenting and protecting the Chapter’s rights and possessions.

The left image shows the southern wall of the former Archive Room and around the corner to the right is the western wall, where a modern painting is currently displayed beneath the geometric wooden ceiling, as shown in the right image. At the center of the southern wall is a window bay whose lateral walls are covered with blue-and-white azulejos. At the far end is a glazed window with beautifully carved wooden shutters, shown open in the image.

Mounted above the window bay is a wooden Crucifix depicting Christ on the cross. An earlier panoramic photograph of the Cartório, taken in 2017, shows this Crucifix mounted on the large, elaborately carved wooden pedestal that is now displayed separately in the adjoining Chapter House. The present arrangement therefore reflects a later reorganization of the objects displayed in the Chapter Rooms.

Covering the lower part of the southern wall and extending into the window bay are elaborate 18th-century blue-and-white azulejo panels attributed to António Vital Rifarto. They belong to a series of nine panels created for the Cartório, whose decorative program includes Saint Michael the Archangel and allegorical representations of the Four Seasons. The compositions are surrounded by elaborate Baroque ornament incorporating architectural forms, scrollwork, foliage, and putti.

Both images show the Cartório’s geometric wooden ceiling. Unlike the richly painted ceiling of the adjoining Chapter House, this ceiling has no figurative paintings; its decorative effect comes primarily from the geometric arrangement of the wooden compartments.

Displayed on the western wall, the modern painting shown in the right image belongs to the present museum display and is not part of the original decoration of the Cartório. The highly stylized composition includes a woman holding a child on the right, surrounded by winged and other figures, while several richly dressed figures occupy the left side. The imagery appears religious, but the artist, title, and precise subject of the painting have not been identified.

Below the painting are two of the five window bays along the western wall of the upper floor, although their windows are currently concealed behind closed white shutters. The remaining three window bays are located in the adjoining Chapter House. The western facade shown earlier reveals the exterior side of these windows, each opening onto a small balcony.

The Chapter House (Sala Capitular): Where the Canons Assembled

The Sala Capitular (Chapter House) is the most important room in the Casa do Cabido and, appropriately, the most richly decorated. It served as the meeting room of the Cathedral Chapter, where the canons, members of the Chapter, assembled to discuss and make decisions concerning the religious, administrative, and financial affairs of Porto Cathedral.

Historically, an oval table surrounded by chairs occupied the center of the room, providing seating for the canons during Chapter meetings. Interestingly, the oval arrangement of the table and chairs was echoed in the form of the magnificent tray-shaped wooden ceiling above, whose geometric compartments converge toward the central painted panel. See the left image below.

The room is organized around two contrasting walls. On the eastern, cloister-facing side is the large wooden Crucifix, surrounded by blue-and-white azulejos and religious sculptures. Opposite it, along the western wall, are three window bays opening toward the western facade. The original use of these window bays is not known, but an ornate wooden chair now occupies the middle bay, although its original function and association are also uncertain.

Magnificent Baroque-Style Painted Wooden Ceiling

The Baroque wooden ceiling, exquisitely painted with Saint Michael at the center surrounded by allegorical figures representing moral virtues.

Depicted on this magnificent Baroque-style, tray-shaped wooden ceiling shown in the image is Saint Michael the Archangel, patron of the Cathedral Chapter, surrounded by 14 allegorical figures, each personifying a virtue or moral principle.

As seen in the image, each painted figure is enclosed within a wooden frame of octagonal, rectangular, trapezoidal, or other polygonal form. At the center is Saint Michael the Archangel defeating the Devil, immediately flanked by the personifications of Liberty and Authority. Liberty holds a scepter and a hat, whereas Authority holds two keys and a staff. Surrounding them in the outer sections are the remaining twelve allegorical figures: Secrecy, Concord, Reward, Clemency, Wisdom I, Prudence, Divine Justice, Wisdom II, Truth, Charity, Merit, and Solicitude.

Completed in 1737, the oil paintings on wood are attributed to the Italian artist Giovanni Battista Pachini, who based them on allegorical models from Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia, one of the most influential European handbooks for representing abstract concepts as human figures.

Unlike a conventional flat coffered ceiling, the wooden ceiling has a tray-like or coved form (tecto de masseira), with its outer sections sloping inward toward the central plane. The octagonal, rectangular, trapezoidal, and other polygonal painted compartments are incorporated into this geometric structure, creating one of the most impressive decorative features of the Chapter House.

A Shining Example of Baroque Decoration

An ensemble of Baroque decoration, including the gilded Crucifix, sculptures, azulejos, and painted wooden ceiling.

The above image shows a beautifully carved wooden Crucifix enclosed within an ornate gilded Baroque frame. Visible above the Crucifix is part of the magnificent painted wooden ceiling. Covering the lower portion of the wall on either side are 18th-century blue-and-white azulejo panels depicting hunting scenes.

Information panel displayed beside the statue of Saint Michael

Mounted on pedestals in front of the wall and flanking the Crucifix are two religious sculptures. On the left is the Virgin Mary holding the Child Jesus. On the right is none other than St. Michael the Archangel, patron saint of the Cathedral Chapter. Beside his sculpture is an information panel shown on the left explaining St. Michael and his association with the Chapter.

Inscribed in both Portuguese and English, the panel describes the importance of São Miguel (Saint Michael the Archangel), patron saint of the Porto Cathedral Chapter, in Porto’s daily life and explains his depiction in the painting on the wooden ceiling of the Chapter House.

In this depiction, Saint Michael, shown defeating the Devil, occupies a central position on the ceiling, surrounded by fourteen allegorical personifications representing principles associated with the Cathedral Chapter. These allegorical figures conveyed a moral message to the members of the Cathedral Chapter who assembled beneath them.

Window Bays

Currently, two of the three window bays are open, while the third is covered. The images below show the two open window bays. Their lateral walls are covered with blue-and-white azulejos, continuing the tile decoration throughout this section of the Chapter House. At the far end of each bay is a glazed window fitted with beautifully carved wooden shutters, shown open in the images below.

The left image shows an ornate wooden chair occupying the center of the middle of three window bays on the western wall, directly opposite the gilded Crucifix. The prominent position of the chair suggests that it may have served an important ceremonial or institutional purpose. However, its original function and association are uncertain.

Prominent chairs were part of the hierarchical organization of cathedral chapters; the Chapter House of Seville, for example, still preserves its documented Archbishop’s Chair of 1592.

Flanking the window bay are two religious sculptures mounted on pedestals. On the right is St. James the Greater (São Tiago Maior), represented as a pilgrim, recognizable by his long staff and pilgrim’s attire. The sculpture originally belonged to an altar dedicated to St. James in Porto Cathedral and was later placed on display in the Chapter House. On the left is a tonsured religious figure holding a book, whose identity has not been established with certainty.

Covering the lower part of the wall are blue-and-white azulejo panels depicting hunting scenes, which continue along the lateral walls of the window bay.

The right image shows a large, elegantly carved wooden pedestal that once supported a Crucifix in front of a window bay. An earlier panoramic photograph of the Casa do Cartório, taken in 2017, shows the Crucifix and pedestal together in the Archive Room. In the present arrangement, the two have been separated: the Crucifix is mounted above a window bay on the southern wall of the Archive Room, while its elaborate wooden pedestal is displayed here in the adjoining Chapter House.

The northern wall beside the window bay is covered with a beautifully crafted azulejo panel depicting a hunting scene. As seen in the image, a mounted hunter carrying a hunting horn rides through a wooded landscape, accompanied by another figure. The scene is enclosed within an elaborate Baroque border composed of scrolls, foliage, architectural motifs, and small figures.

The Middle Floor: Home of the Cathedral Treasury

The middle floor of the Casa do Cabido consists of four interconnected rooms and today houses the Cathedral Treasury. Unlike the upper floor, which was primarily associated with the administrative activities of the Cathedral Chapter, this level preserves objects connected with the religious and ceremonial life of Porto Cathedral.

The Treasure Room (Sala do Tesouro)

The collection is displayed in the Treasure Room (Sala do Tesouro) and includes vestments, liturgical books, crosses, reliquaries, monstrances, and other objects used in cathedral worship over the centuries. These treasures are grouped and preserved in nine enclosed glass cases, three of which are shown below.

The glass case shown in the left image contains objects made primarily from precious metals and used in worship, religious processions, and devotional practices.

At the center is a highly ornate monstrance, a ceremonial vessel designed to hold and publicly display the consecrated Host for veneration, particularly during Eucharistic adoration, Benediction, and religious processions. The circular opening at its center is enclosed by glass to hold and display the Host and is surrounded by intricate metalwork. Rising above it is a tall, richly decorated Gothic-style pinnacle, crowned by a cross.

On either side are several other religious objects, including reliquaries, made to preserve and display relics associated with saints, and different forms of processional or altar crosses used during cathedral ceremonies. At the far right is a metal sculpture of the Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child, surrounded by radiating rays.

The top right image shows one of the nine cases. At the center of the collection is an ornate 18th-century mitre, the ceremonial headdress traditionally worn by a bishop. Made from light-colored fabric and richly embellished with gold embroidery, floral patterns, and colored stones, it reflects the elaborate style of ecclesiastical vestments of the period.

Behind the mitre, three richly embroidered chasubles, the outer garments worn by priests while celebrating Mass, are displayed on stands. The vestments are decorated with gold floral and foliage designs on light-colored fabric. Spread across the bottom of the display are several other ceremonial objects, including embroidered stoles and other vestment accessories, historic liturgical books, and smaller ecclesiastical items.

The bottom right image shows a collection of objects associated with Catholic worship and the proclamation of the Gospel. At the rear is a beautifully crafted Crucifix flanked by richly embroidered vestments displayed on stands. Decorated with elaborate floral, foliage, and figurative designs, these vestments were worn by clergy during religious services.

In front of them are three Latin liturgical texts, each enclosed in an ornate metal frame. The largest, in the middle, includes Sacrum Convivium, a Eucharistic text traditionally associated with Saint Thomas Aquinas. The smaller frame on the left contains text headed “In Festis Majoribus” and includes Gloria in excelsis Deo, while the one on the right is headed “Et Duplicibus” and includes Credo in unum Deum. These framed texts were intended to be read by the celebrant during the liturgy.

In the foreground are four metal sculptures representing the Four Evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, traditionally recognized as the authors of the four canonical Gospels. The figures are accompanied by their customary symbolic attributes, widely used in Christian art to identify the Evangelists: the angel or winged man for Matthew, the lion for Mark, the ox for Luke, and the eagle for John.

Beyond the Cathedral Church

The Casa do Cabido offers a glimpse into a side of Porto Cathedral that is less visible inside the church itself. From the Archive Room, where the Chapter preserved the records of its administration, to the magnificent Chapter House, where the canons assembled and made decisions concerning cathedral affairs, the upper floor reflects the institutional life of the Cathedral Chapter. On the middle floor, the Treasure Room preserves another part of this legacy through vestments, liturgical books, religious sculptures, and ceremonial objects used in worship over the centuries. Together, these rooms help us understand Porto Cathedral not simply as a place of worship, but as an institution whose religious, administrative, and ceremonial life has evolved over many centuries.

Casa do Cabido: A Building for the Porto Cathedral Chapter

A New Home for the Cathedral Chapter

The Top Floor: The Chapter Rooms

The Archive Room (Cartório): Preserving the Chapter’s Records