Portuguese colonial architecture refers to the various styles of Portuguese architecture built across the Portuguese Empire (including Portugal). Many former colonies, especially Brazil, Macau, and India, promote their Portuguese architecture as major tourist attractions and many are UNESCO world heritage sites. Portuguese colonial architecture can be found in the plethora of former colonies throughout South America, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, India, Oceania, and East Asia.
During the 15th century, the Portuguese Empire was expanding and laying its foundations, and the colonial architecture of this period was built following a militaristic and functional base. Most of Portugal's colonies were defended by military fortifications, today the highlight of Portuguese colonial architecture of the period. The Fort of São Jorge da Mina is a well-preserved example of 15th-century Portuguese colonial architecture. Beginning construction in 1482, the fort was, for a long period, the most sophisticated and impenetrable fortification in Sub-Saharan Africa. Like many Portuguese castles and colonial fortifications of the time, the fort was built in a sober and functional style, with an importance more on defensibility that appearance. On the interior of most Portuguese colonial forts of the 15th century, highlights of governor's mansions and imperial administrative buildings included the occasional Gothic and Manueline portal, fountain, or window.
Apart from military architecture, religious architecture was an important genre of interest in 15th-century Portuguese colonial architecture. Religious expansion being a backbone of Portuguese imperial expansion during the 15th century, many of the oldest Christian churches of Africa were founded by the Portuguese during this time. The Cathedral of Funchal, the oldest cathedral in Africa, started 1491, is a good exampled of Portuguese colonial religious architecture. During the 15th century, most Portuguese colonial religious buildings, much like those of military and civic purpose, were built soberly and with few extravagancies. Portuguese colonial churches of the 15th century, however sober they may have been, were the center point of most of the many Portuguese colonies at the time, and thus were usually the most ornate buildings in the colony, ornateness in this period meaning a detailed portal or window. The Cathedral of Funchal best typifies the 15th-century Portuguese colonial church, with its tall and sturdy stronghold-like church walls with a detailed Gothic portal and rose window.
During the 16th century, the Portuguese Empire was the largest, and wealthiest, European colonial empire and Portugal was one of Europe's most important states. Within the first year of the century, 1500, the Portuguese had established the Captaincy Colonies of Brazil, in South America, the colonies of Terra Nova and Labrador, in North America, the trade-colonies of Cochim, in India, and Melinde, in Sub-Saharan Africa. This century really solidified the Portuguese stronghold on the spice trade, with territorial expansions in Portuguese India, with the conquest of key cities, such as Calecute, 1512, Bombaim, 1534, Baçaím, 1535, and Salsete, 1534, among others. The Portuguese colonization of the Americas also began in the 16th century, establishing three North American colonies and thirteen South American colonies, but by the end of the century the number of colonies, in total, was reduced to four, due to integration into mega-colonies. In the far east, the Portuguese established Portuguese Macau, 1537, and Portuguese Timor, 1596. By the end of the century, the Portuguese Empire was an enormously vast empire, spanning from Portuguese Malacca, in East Asia, and the Governorate General of Brazil, in South America, to Ormuz, on the Persian Gulf, and Mombaça, in Sub-Saharan Africa. The expansion of the empire, both territorially and economically, influenced Portuguese colonial architecture a great deal.
Like in the 15th century, Portuguese colonial architecture in the 16th century was built for the utmost functionality and purpose. Unlike in the previous epoch, however, 16th-century Portuguese colonial architecture did not skip aesthetics in order to pursue functionality, instead it was, for the first time, able to truly compromise the two ideals of beauty and function, an ideal persistent throughout the Portuguese Renaissance. As in most times, military structures of the period were usually large, foreboding forts, but Portuguese colonial architecture of the 16th century also saw the creation of administrative palaces and governor mansions within these forts, which were built in a manner following necessity but also taste and style, on a different level than seen before. A good example of a Portuguese colonial military fort with palatial accommodations is the Fort of the Reis Magos, in Natal, Brazil. The fort is located on the edge of the ocean, on a strategic location for both land and sea attacks, and is completely sober in its exterior façade. On the interior, however, the Governor's Mansion was built in a simple, but stylish at the time, Alentejo style, originating in the south of Portugal.
Alongside the increased sophistication of Portuguese colonial military architecture in the 16th century, religious architecture hit a level never seen before in the Portuguese Empire. Portugal's immense wealth from its empire, mainly from the spice trade, fueled its historical religious zeal for converting non-Christians. Portuguese India of the 16th century was the cultural and economic powerhouse of the Portuguese Empire, and this, in combination with the Goa Inquisition, subset of the Portuguese Inquisition, created a major court of the Portuguese Renaissance, evident in the enormous and elaborate churches of the epoch. The Cathedral of Goa, the cathedral for Portuguese India, embodies most all of what Portuguese colonial religious architecture stood for. The cathedral was built to commemorate a Christian victory, that of Afonso de Albuquerque over the Moslems, and the edifice is built in a grandiose Portuguese classical style. The high bell towers and detailed portal and windows are typical of Portuguese churches, and they seek to show Christian, more importantly Portuguese, dominance of the area, a major theme of Portuguese colonial religious architecture of the 16th century.
For the Portuguese Empire, the 17th century was a time of reclamation and gradual increase. After the Dutch-Portuguese War, the Portuguese reclaimed the territories that the Dutch had occupied during the Iberian Union. In India, Portuguese territories were no longer the only powerful Europeans in the region and the colonies there saw minimal expansion, São Tomé de Meliapor, 1687, as well as the transfer of Bombaim to the British, 1661, as part of Catherine of Braganza's dowry. In Africa, the Portuguese expanded along the coast, with São João Baptista de Ajudá, 1680, and Bissau, 1687, and inland, with Ziguinchor, 1645. The centre and focus of Portuguese imperial ambition, during the 17th century, was Portuguese America. With the abandonment of Barbados, 1620, and the restructuration of the Governorate General of Brazil, 1621, Portuguese colonial possessions in the Americas were reestablished into two colonial states, the State of Brazil and the State of Maranhão. With the foundation of Colony of Santíssimo Sacramento, in 1680, the Portuguese gained substantial territorial gains in South America. Expansion, coupled with the riches from the Brazilian Gold Rush, fostered a new level of Portuguese colonial architecture in Portuguese America, that based itself more on lavishness and wealth than the sober and conservative stylistic bases of the 16th century.
Initially, the 17th century was a rough period for the Portuguese Empire, having ended the Iberian Union, through the Portuguese Restoration War, and then entered into the Dutch-Portuguese War. Because of the continuous military action throughout the empire, a large part of 17th-century Portuguese colonial architecture was that of building Baroque, scientifically designed fortifications. A good example of 17th-century Portuguese colonial military architecture is the Fort and Defensive Walls of the Colony of Santíssimo Sacramento. Typical of the era, Santíssimo Sacramento's fortifications surrounded the city completely and only had access three ways, two draw gates to the territory and the port of the city, as most Portuguese colonial cities were structured. The 17th century also saw a period of heightened urban planning in Portuguese colonial locations, sculpting the colonial cities and forts around the ideals and rationales of the Enlightenment.
Although the 17th century was a tumultuous time for the Portuguese Empire, filled with conflict, conquest, and confusion, a heightened religious zeal arose to support and justify the actions taken by Portuguese imperial forces. Religious Portuguese colonial architecture of the time was typified by grandeur and demonstration of religious importance and imperial wealth. The majority of churches and other religious buildings during this epoch were built in a transition phase between Mannerism and the Baroque. A good example of a Portuguese colonial church from the era is the Church of the Divine Providence of São Caetano, 1639, India. The church, which was a mannerist-baroque crossover, was ordered to be built by Pedro da Silva, Viceroy of India, to demonstrate Portuguese wealth and the integration of the territory as an important Portuguese colony. Many Portuguese colonial churches of the 17th century were constructed to present power and wealth of the Portuguese Empire over an area, apart from religious uses, and the more important the colony the better designed and grander the church or monastery.
The 18th century was an epoch a great expansion in the Portuguese Empire. In Portuguese America, the State of Brazil and the State of Maranhão expanded westward, leading to the restructuration of Maranhão into the mega-colony State of Grão-Pará and Maranhão, in 1751. In 1772, Portuguese America, once again, expanded and restructured, splitting the State of Grão-Pará and Maranhão into the State of Grão-Pará and Rio Negro and the State of Maranhão and Piauí. Meanwhile, the Colony of Santíssimo Sacramento was disputed between the Portuguese and the Spanish for the major part of the century, creating uneasy conditions in that colony. In Portuguese India, territorial conquest and diplomacy created the Colony of Dadrá e Nagar-Aveli, 1779. In Portuguese Africa, imperial holdings expanded up the eastern continental coast with the reconquest of Mombaça, 1728, which had been lost in 1698. The 1755 Lisbon earthquake devastated the Kingdom of Portugal and its capital of Lisbon, and thus most imperial funds went to metropolitan Portugal to rebuild the wrecked capital and its realms. The loss of some funds hindered Portuguese colonial architecture in the 18th century initially, but the great gold mines of Portuguese America, and the lucrative slave trade of Portuguese Africa, allowed a period of relative wealth and fostered the arts.
During the 18th, Portuguese colonial military architecture grew at a steady rate, with scientific breakthroughs and engineering advancements, but it is overshadowed by the new height for Portuguese Colonial civic architecture, which expanded due to the time of peace and great wealth for the Portuguese Empire. During the epoch, Northern Portuguese Baroque, a style that originated from the Porto and Beira regions of northern Portugal, became the preferred style for Portuguese colonial civic architecture. It was in the 18th century that the Portuguese colonies in South America gained their importance within the empire, through newly found gold and diamonds, and many great palaces, public buildings, and monuments were created, including the Passeio Público, 1779, the oldest public park in the Americas. A good example for a Portuguese colonial civic building from the era is the Palace of the Viceroys of Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro. Built in 1738, for the Viceroy of State of Brazil, the palace typifies the style of Portuguese colonial baroque in civic use, with its white-washed exterior walls and simple grey stone baroque windows and portals.
Similar in Portuguese colonial civic architecture, the religious counterpart largely used the Northern Portuguese Baroque style as the basis for most architectural projects. Colonial churches of the era saw a period of never before seen lavishness and excess. Richly ornate Baroque exteriors of grey and brown stone on white washed walls were equaled in high design with their gold gilded interiors with intricately painted ceilings and azulejos. A typification of Portuguese colonial religious architecture of the era is the Church of São Francisco de Assis, in Ouro Preto. Designed by the famous Portuguese colonial architect Antônio Francisco Lisboa, the church proclaims to its visitors the wealth of the Portuguese Empire and God's blessing over it, by giving it access to the vast riches of colonial Brazil. The ornate double-storied portal is typical of the epoch, while the rounded plan of the church is unique to Portuguese Colonial architecture in Brazil. The baroque rounded tops that flatten out at the end are common amongst all Portuguese colonial architecture, both religious and civic, and both in Brazil and in the rest of the Portuguese Empire.
Hue, Jorge de Souza (1999). Uma visão da arquitectura colonial no Brasil[A vision of Colonial Architecture in Brazil] (in Portuguese). Rio de Janeiro.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
1 1975 is the year of East Timor's Declaration of Independence and subsequent invasion by Indonesia. In 2002, East Timor's independence was fully recognized.
Portuguese colonization of the Americas constituted territories in the Americas belonging to the Kingdom of Portugal. Portugal was the leading country in the European exploration of the world in the 15th century. The Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 divided the Earth outside Europe into Castilian and Portuguese global territorial hemispheres for exclusive conquest and colonization. Portugal colonized parts of South America, but also made some unsuccessful attempts to colonize North America.
The Portuguese Empire, also known as the Portuguese Overseas or the Portuguese Colonial Empire, was composed of the overseas colonies, factories, and later overseas territories, governed by the Kingdom of Portugal. It was one of the longest-lived colonial empires in European history, lasting almost six centuries from the conquest of Ceuta in North Africa in 1415, to the transfer of sovereignty over Macau to China in 1999. The empire began in the 15th century, and from the early 16th century it stretched across the globe, with bases in Africa, North America, South America, and various regions of Asia and Oceania.
Colonial Brazil comprises the period from 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese, until 1815, when Brazil was elevated to a kingdom in union with Portugal. During the 300 years of Brazilian colonial history, the main economic activities of the territory were based first on brazilwood extraction, which gave the territory its name; sugar production ; and finally on gold and diamond mining. Slaves, especially those brought from Africa, provided most of the workforce of the Brazilian export economy after a brief initial period of Indigenous slavery to cut brazilwood.
Portuguese creoles are creole languages which have Portuguese as their substantial lexifier. The most widely-spoken creoles influenced by Portuguese are Cape Verdean Creole, Guinea-Bissau Creole and Papiamento.
The Captaincies of Brazil were captaincies of the Portuguese Empire, administrative divisions and hereditary fiefs of Portugal in the colony of Terra de Santa Cruz, later called Brazil, on the Atlantic coast of northeastern South America. Each was granted to a single donee, a Portuguese nobleman who was given the title captain General.
Colonial architecture is a hybrid architectural style that arose as colonists combined architectural styles from their country of origin with design characteristics of the settled country. Colonists frequently built houses and buildings in a style that was familiar to them but with local characteristics more suited to their new climate. Below are links to specific articles about colonial architecture, specifically the modern colonies:
The civilizing mission is a political rationale for military intervention and for colonization purporting to facilitate the Westernization of indigenous peoples, especially in the period from the 15th to the 20th centuries. As a principle of Western culture, the term was most prominently used in justifying French colonialism in the late-15th to mid-20th centuries. The civilizing mission was the cultural justification for the colonization of French Algeria, French West Africa, French Indochina, Portuguese Angola and Portuguese Guinea, Portuguese Mozambique and Portuguese Timor, among other colonies. The civilizing mission also was a popular justification for the British and German colonialism. In the Russian Empire, it was also associated with the Russian conquest of Central Asia and the Russification of that region. The Western colonial powers claimed that, as Christian nations, they were duty bound to disseminate Western civilization to what they perceived as heathen, primitive cultures.
A colonial empire is a collective of territories, either contiguous with the imperial center or located overseas, settled by the population of a certain state and governed by that state.
Portuguese architecture refers to both the architecture of Portugal's modern-day territory in Continental Portugal, the Azores and Madeira, as well as the architectural heritage/patrimony of Portuguese architects and styles throughout the world, particularly in countries formerly part of the Portuguese Empire.
The Kingdom of Portugal was a monarchy in the western Iberian Peninsula and the predecessor of the modern Portuguese Republic. Existing to various extents between 1139 and 1910, it was also known as the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves after 1415, and as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves between 1815 and 1822. The name is also often applied to the Portuguese Empire, the realm's overseas colonies.
This article is a comprehensive list of all the actual possessions of the Portuguese Empire.
The architecture of the Portuguese Renaissance intimately linked to Gothic architecture and gradual in its classical elements. The Manueline style was a transitional style that combined Renaissance and Gothic ornamental elements to buildings that were architectonically closer to Gothic architecture, as is the Isabelline style of Spain. Manueline was succeeded by a brief Early Renaissance phase, closer to Classical canons, followed by the adoption of Mannerist forms. Portuguese Mannerism, specially in secular architecture, is characterised by simplicity in the organisation of façades and relative lack of decoration, being often referred to as Estilo Chão. Even with the arrival of Baroque architecture in the late 17th century, Portuguese architecture continued to use Mannerist forms well into the 18th century.
The Historic Center (US) or Centre of Salvador de Bahia in Brazil, also known as the Pelourinho or Pelo, is a historic neighborhood in western Salvador, Bahia. It was the city's center during the Portuguese colonial period and was named for the whipping post in its central plaza where enslaved people from Africa were publicly beaten as punishment for alleged infractions. The Historic Center is extremely rich in historical monuments dating from the 17th through the 19th centuries.
The Baroque in Brazil was the dominant artistic style during most of the colonial period, finding an open ground for a rich flowering. It made its appearance in the country at the beginning of the 17th century, introduced by Catholic missionaries, especially Jesuits, who went there in order to catechize and acculturate the native indigenous peoples and assist the Portuguese in the colonizing process. In the course of the Colonial period, expressed a close association between the Church and the State, but in the colony there was not a court that would serve as a patron of the arts, the elites did not bother to build palaces, or to help sponsor the profane arts, but at the end of the period, and how the religion had a strong influence on the daily lives of everyone in this group of factors derives from the vast majority of the legacy of the Brazilian Baroque period, is the sacred art: statuary, painting, and the work of carving for the decoration of churches and convents, or for private worship.
Degredado is the traditional Portuguese term for an exiled convict, especially between the 15th and 18th centuries.
Overseas province was a designation used by Portugal for its overseas possessions, located outside Europe.
São Tomé and Príncipe islands were a colony of the Portuguese Empire from its discovery in 1470 until 1975, when independence was granted by Portugal.
Luso-Asians are Eurasian people whose ethnicity is partially or wholly Portuguese and ancestrally are based in or hail primarily from Portugal, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. They historically came under the cultural and multi-ethnic sway of the Portuguese Empire in the East and retain certain aspects of the Portuguese language, Roman Catholic faith, and Latin cultural practices, including internal and external architecture, art, and cuisine that reflect this contact. The term Luso comes from the Roman empire's province of Lusitania, which roughly corresponds to modern Portugal.
The introduction of Mannerism in Brazil represented the beginning of the country's European-descended artistic history. Discovered by the Portuguese in 1500, Brazil was until then inhabited by indigenous peoples, whose culture had rich immemorial traditions, but was in every way different from the Portuguese culture. With the arrival of the colonizers, the first elements of a large-scale domination that continues to this day were introduced. During the founding of a new American civilization, the main cultural current in force in Europe was Mannerism, a complex and often contradictory synthesis of classical elements derived from the Italian Renaissance - now questioned and transformed by the collapse of the unified, optimistic, idealistic, anthropocentric world view crystallized in the High Renaissance - and of regional traditions cultivated in various parts of Europe, including Portugal, which still had in the earlier Gothic style a strong reference base. Over the years the current was added of new elements, coming from a context deeply disturbed by the Reformation, against which the Catholic Church organized, in the second half of the sixteenth century, an aggressive disciplinary and proselytizing program, the so-called Counter-Reformation, revolutionizing the arts and culture of the time.
The colonial architecture of Brazil is defined as the architecture carried out in the current Brazilian territory from 1500, the year of the Portuguese arrival, until its Independence, in 1822.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
