Versão portuguesa aqui.

GPS 41.209945578168245, -8.623515671754381

The Monastery of Leça do Balio, where the Church of Santa Maria de Leça do Balio is located, is located in the parish of Custóias, Leça do Balio and Guifões, in the municipality of Matosinhos, district of Porto, Portugal.

Close to the mouth of the river Leça, about a league away, it is an original example of fortified religious architecture.

It is classified as a National Monument by Decree published on June 23, 1910.

History Background It is assumed that in the exact place where the monastery is located today there was a Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter (from the 1st century), and a Villa Decia next to the site. One of the most significant archaeological discoveries attesting to this fact was a Roman inscription dedicated to the god Jupiter, in Quinta do Alão.

But according to tradition, the original construction of the site dates back to a small monastery with a church, under the invocation of the Savior, erected in the 10th century through the patronage of a lord of those domains, in the context of the Christian Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula, at the time of the first Asturian-Leonese monarchs. No element of these pre-Romanesque structures has survived to this day.

Throughout the 11th century, the primitive monastery is referred to in several contemporary documents: a document from 1003 describes the donation of the monastery to D. Tructesindo Osores and his wife D. Unisco Mendes, patroness of the monastery. In 1021, the monastery was left to the couple's children, but in 1094, the patronage was transferred to the Cathedral of Coimbra, by donation from Raimundo de Burgonha, Count of Galicia, and his wife Urraca I of León and Castile.

D. Guntino (prior of the monastery in the 11th century) is believed to have carried out work on the monastery and renovated the church.

On an uncertain date, in the second decade of the 12th century, D. Afonso Henriques (1112-1185) donated the Leça couto to the Order of Hospitallers, one of the first documented Military Orders in Portuguese territory. The Order's Chapter House was established in the primitive monastery, which later became the seat of one of several bailiwicks, from which the village's toponym came: Leça do Bailio.

The current temple In the possession of the Hospitallers, the primitive monastery received further expansions and reforms that gave it features of a military nature in Romanesque style, the most striking element of which was the construction of a solid crenellated tower. The time when the hospitallers took possession of the couto would have been very rich for the monastery, since it included numerous churches in the current municipality of Matosinhos. The monastery was rebuilt by D. Gualdim Paes de Marecos, in 1180 and dedicated to Santa Maria.

The current temple, a synthesis of Romanesque and Gothic styles, dates back to a major construction campaign initiated by the Prior of the Order, D. Friar Estevão Vasques Pimentel, between 1330 and 1336, when the monastic buildings and the cloister were renovated, several of which survive to this day, although the Priory of the Order was moved to Crato after the Battle of Salado in 1340.

Here was celebrated the marriage of King D. Fernando (1367-1383) with D. Leonor Teles. Later, in the context of the Crisis of 1383-1385, Constable Nuno Álvares Pereira was there in 1385, at the beginning of the journey that gave him possession of Castelo de Neiva and other locations in the region.

Following the liberal triumph in the country, the monastery of Leça do Balio witnessed the extinction of religious orders (1834), losing its privileges and rights that the order still had over the parish, being integrated into the municipality of Bouças (now Matosinhos), in 1835.

In the 1930s, a restoration work was carried out on the entire monument by the General Directorate of Historical Monuments.

In 1996, the monastery began to be the scene of improvement works supported by Unicer, under the Patronage Law.

In 2016 it was acquired and reclassified by the Lionesa Group.

Characteristics

The church, renovated from the beginning of the 14th century, with a Romanesque matrix but transitioned to Gothic, reflects a mixture of religious and military spirit, with the interior devoted to God, but externally displaying solid walls crowned by battlements and supported by buttresses, highlighting a balcony also crenellated and with boulders defending, like the battlement of a castle, the main door.

In plan, the mendicant model is clear: three naves, organized into five spans, the last being a kind of inscribed transept, marked only in height; the division of space is made through pillars, with a cruciform profile by adjoining columns on its four faces; the chevet is triple, with a chancel deeper than the apses, and with a polygonal east section. The roof of the naves is made of wood and the transept has a cross vault with ogives. Both the walls of the central nave and the side aisles have twin windows. On the south façade, there is a portal with four archivolts topped by a simple gable, whose capitals have plant and animal ornaments.

Externally, a solid crenellated tower flanks the main façade, on the south side. The imposing tower is 28 meters high and is equipped with Mata-cães (in the corners) and with windows and loopholes.

Versão portuguesa aqui.

GPS 41.209945578168245, -8.623515671754381

The Monastery of Leça do Balio, where the Church of Santa Maria de Leça do Balio is located, is located in the parish of Custóias, Leça do Balio and Guifões, in the municipality of Matosinhos, district of Porto, Portugal.

Close to the mouth of the river Leça, about a league away, it is an original example of fortified religious architecture.

It is classified as a National Monument by Decree published on June 23, 1910.

History Background It is assumed that in the exact place where the monastery is located today there was a Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter (from the 1st century), and a Villa Decia next to the site. One of the most significant archaeological discoveries attesting to this fact was a Roman inscription dedicated to the god Jupiter, in Quinta do Alão.

But according to tradition, the original construction of the site dates back to a small monastery with a church, under the invocation of the Savior, erected in the 10th century through the patronage of a lord of those domains, in the context of the Christian Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula, at the time of the first Asturian-Leonese monarchs. No element of these pre-Romanesque structures has survived to this day.

Throughout the 11th century, the primitive monastery is referred to in several contemporary documents: a document from 1003 describes the donation of the monastery to D. Tructesindo Osores and his wife D. Unisco Mendes, patroness of the monastery. In 1021, the monastery was left to the couple's children, but in 1094, the patronage was transferred to the Cathedral of Coimbra, by donation from Raimundo de Burgonha, Count of Galicia, and his wife Urraca I of León and Castile.

D. Guntino (prior of the monastery in the 11th century) is believed to have carried out work on the monastery and renovated the church.

On an uncertain date, in the second decade of the 12th century, D. Afonso Henriques (1112-1185) donated the Leça couto to the Order of Hospitallers, one of the first documented Military Orders in Portuguese territory. The Order's Chapter House was established in the primitive monastery, which later became the seat of one of several bailiwicks, from which the village's toponym came: Leça do Bailio.

The current temple In the possession of the Hospitallers, the primitive monastery received further expansions and reforms that gave it features of a military nature in Romanesque style, the most striking element of which was the construction of a solid crenellated tower. The time when the hospitallers took possession of the couto would have been very rich for the monastery, since it included numerous churches in the current municipality of Matosinhos. The monastery was rebuilt by D. Gualdim Paes de Marecos, in 1180 and dedicated to Santa Maria.

The current temple, a synthesis of Romanesque and Gothic styles, dates back to a major construction campaign initiated by the Prior of the Order, D. Friar Estevão Vasques Pimentel, between 1330 and 1336, when the monastic buildings and the cloister were renovated, several of which survive to this day, although the Priory of the Order was moved to Crato after the Battle of Salado in 1340.

Here was celebrated the marriage of King D. Fernando (1367-1383) with D. Leonor Teles. Later, in the context of the Crisis of 1383-1385, Constable Nuno Álvares Pereira was there in 1385, at the beginning of the journey that gave him possession of Castelo de Neiva and other locations in the region.

Following the liberal triumph in the country, the monastery of Leça do Balio witnessed the extinction of religious orders (1834), losing its privileges and rights that the order still had over the parish, being integrated into the municipality of Bouças (now Matosinhos), in 1835.

In the 1930s, a restoration work was carried out on the entire monument by the General Directorate of Historical Monuments.

In 1996, the monastery began to be the scene of improvement works supported by Unicer, under the Patronage Law.

In 2016 it was acquired and reclassified by the Lionesa Group.

Characteristics

The church, renovated from the beginning of the 14th century, with a Romanesque matrix but transitioned to Gothic, reflects a mixture of religious and military spirit, with the interior devoted to God, but externally displaying solid walls crowned by battlements and supported by buttresses, highlighting a balcony also crenellated and with boulders defending, like the battlement of a castle, the main door.

In plan, the mendicant model is clear: three naves, organized into five spans, the last being a kind of inscribed transept, marked only in height; the division of space is made through pillars, with a cruciform profile by adjoining columns on its four faces; the chevet is triple, with a chancel deeper than the apses, and with a polygonal east section. The roof of the naves is made of wood and the transept has a cross vault with ogives. Both the walls of the central nave and the side aisles have twin windows. On the south façade, there is a portal with four archivolts topped by a simple gable, whose capitals have plant and animal ornaments.

Externally, a solid crenellated tower flanks the main façade, on the south side. The imposing tower is 28 meters high and is equipped with Mata-cães (in the corners) and with windows and loopholes.