page_title: Portuguese Romanesque architecture
section_title: Cistercian Romanesque
hierarchical_section_title: Portuguese Romanesque architecture / Cistercian Romanesque
caption_attribution_description: Português: Vistas da Pousada e do seu laranjal This file was uploaded for Wiki Loves Monuments in Portugal with the unique identifier 74590. English&#160;| español&#160;| português&#160;| português do Brasil&#160;| +/−
context_page_description: The Romanesque style of architecture was introduced in Portugal between the end of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th century. In general, Portuguese cathedrals have a heavy, fortress-like appearance, with crenellations and few decorative elements apart from portals and windows. Portuguese Romanesque cathedrals were later extensively modified, among others the Old Cathedral of Coimbra, although it only had some minor changes.
  Chronological and geographical distribution of Romanesque buildings in Portugal are intimately connected with the territorial organization emerging from the Reconquista, being the fundamental reason for the differences between a locally influenced artistical phenomenon in the North of the country and a more "international" kind in buildings like Coimbra and Lisbon cathedrals. Romanesque architecture first developed in Minho and Douro regions spreading later southwards to Coimbra. It is in the rural areas of the northwest and center regions that Romanesque buildings are more concentrated, being more dense in the margins of rivers Douro and Mondego.
context_section_description: The Cistercian Romanesque architecture reflected the austerity and sobriety characteristic of that monastical Order in their quest for a mistic and spiritual goal preached by their leader and mentor Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.
  In Portugal, besides a Cistercian Gothic-featured architecture (in which the Alcobaça Monastery is a universal symbol), there is a previous Romanesque style expressed by the Abbeys of Tarouca (construction started in 1144, the year of Cistercian monks arrival in Portugal), Salzedas (started in 1152) and Fiães (started in 1163).
  In the architecture of Cistercian churches the transept is usually quite wide and the lateral aisles are covered with groined vaults that help to sustain the longitudinal central nave. There is a clear preference for square-shaped apses, more simple and economical to build. The columns and piers supporting pointed-arched arcades (already a proto-Gothic feature), have big strong capitals and stand on rectangular blocks on the ground floor. Although Tarouca Abbey was clearly inspired in the Burgundian abbeys of Clairvaux and Fontenay and Salzedas still have some similarities with Fontfroide, their authentic and magnificent Cistercian architectural features are mixed with local Portuguese decorative motifs.
  Some of smaller churches were also influenced by Cistercian Romanesque, like the vault of São Martinho de Mouros that shows the influx of Tarouca's abbey central nave vault and the exterior capitals in the main altar of Armamar church are significantly influenced by the outlayer of Salzedas abbey.
caption: Amares Abbey, one of the first of the Order of Cister in Portugal.
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