page_title: Batalha Monastery
section_title: Unfinished Chapels
hierarchical_section_title: Batalha Monastery / Architecture / Interior / Unfinished Chapels
caption_attribution_description: Monastery of Batalha 20
context_page_description: The Monastery of Batalha is a Dominican convent in the municipality of Batalha, in the district of Leiria, in the Centro Region of Portugal. Originally, and officially, known as the Monastery of Saint Mary of the Victory, it was erected in commemoration of the 1385 Battle of Aljubarrota and would serve as the burial church of the 15th-century Aviz dynasty of Portuguese royalty. It is one of the best and original examples of Late Flamboyant Gothic architecture in Portugal, intermingled with the Manueline style.
context_section_description: As Capelas Imperfeitas (The Unfinished Chapels) are a reminder that the monastery was never actually finished. They form a separate octagonal structure tacked on the choir of the church (via a retrochoir) and only accessible from the outside. It was commissioned in 1437 by King Edward of Portugal ("Dom Duarte", d.1438) as a second royal mausoleum for himself and his descendants. But he and his queen Eleanor of Aragon are the only ones buried here. (Eleanor died in exile in Toledo in 1445; her remains were moved here in 1456.)
  The original design, begun by Huguet, was altered by successive architects, especially Mateus Fernandes (who is buried inside the church). The octagonal rotunda has seven radiating hexagonal chapels. In the corners of the chapels stand the massive unfinished buttresses that were intended to support the vault. These pillars, designed by Diogo Boitac, are decorated with Manueline motives carved in stone.
  The portal rises to a monumental fifteen metres. It was originally built in Gothic style, but was transformed beyond recognition by Mateus Fernandes into a masterpiece of Manueline style (completed in 1509). It is completely decorated into a lacework of sumptuous and stylized Manueline motives: armillary, spheres, winged angels, ropes, circles, tree stumps, clover-shaped arches and florid projections. This homage of King Manuel I to his predecessor King Edward mentions his motto Leauté faray tam yaserei ("I will always be loyal"). This motto is then repeated more than two hundred times in the arches, vaults and pillars of the chapels.
  The Renaissance loggia, added at about 1533, was probably meant for musicians. It is ascribed to the architect João de Castilho.
caption: Interior of the Unfinished chapels
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