Silves Cathedral

A mosque, built during the Moorish rule of the Iberian Peninsula, was originally located in its current place, and was later mostly restructured and converted into a Catholic cathedral after the Reconquista.

In the process of the Reconquista, Moorish Silves was conquered in 1189 by King Sancho I of Portugal, but since the city was retaken by the Moors in 1191, it is unlikely that a cathedral was built at this time.

In the 1440s, the cathedral workshop was given a great impulse by King Afonso V. This building campaign produced the apse with its three chapels, the transept and the main portal, in Gothic style, dating from the 1470s.

In 1499, in the presence of King Manuel I, his remains were exhumed and transferred to the Monastery of Batalha, where John II was permanently re-buried; however, his tomb slab with a Gothic inscription is still located on the floor of the main chapel of Silves Cathedral.

Many important personalities of Silves, from nobility to crusaders, explorers, bishops and judges as well as local inhabitants from different walks of life were buried in the cathedral during the 15th and 16th centuries, as attested by the many tomb slabs on its floor, some of the most notable ones being Bishop D. Fernando Coutinho, present in the negotiations of the Treaty of Tordesillas and a defender of the Jews, Egas Moniz Teles, nobleman under king Manuel I, whose family were amongst the first inhabitants of the Madeira island, judge João do Rego and his son in law Gastão da Ilha, Squire to Infante John.

The building was repaired and modified, replacing the simple Gothic forms of the upper part of the main façade with Rococo volutes.

The main portal, executed in the 1470s, is inserted on a stepped rectangular moulding (alfiz), a common feature on the façades of Portuguese mediaeval buildings since the Romanesque era.