Saint Mary’s Church

Main church, located at the square with the same name, is the main temple of Óbidos. Mosque in the Muslim period and sacred by D. Afonso Henriques shortly after the conquest of the town in 1148. If the exact date of the foundation is not known, it is a fact that the priory of the new church was given to Saint Teotónio, companion of D. Afonso Henriques, a great figure of the Church and prior to the powerful Monastery of Santa Cruz de Coimbra, who had the patronage of the Church of Santa Maria until D. João III donated it to his wife, Queen D. Catarina of Austria.

The medieval temple was deeply renovated by Queen D. Leonor at the end of the 15th century, dragging the works through the first quarter of the 16th century. The bell tower, adjoining the facade and covered by an octave pyramid dome, dates from this campaign. Certainly affected by the 1535 earthquake, about 1570 was in danger of ruin, so its complete reconstruction is immediately thought. Thus, on August 15, 1571, the day of the Assumption of Our Lady, the first stone of the new church was laid, with a procession and great religious apparatus, continuing the works under the protection of Queen D. Catarina and Prior D. Rodrigo Sanches, Spanish cleric, chief alderman of the Queen and a figure of great prestige in the court of Carlos V.

This campaign results in its current configuration, with probable sketch by the royal architect António Rodrigues (Pedro Flor, 2002). About a century later, it undergoes new works of improvement, by the initiative of Prior Francisco de Azevedo Caminha, who redecorates the church through an artistic program of Baroque taste – ceiling, tiles and canvases of the naves.

Outside, there is a beautiful Mannerist portal surmounted by the image of Our Lady of Assumption, patron saint, a very restored composition. It consists of two pairs of columns that support the pediment with a frieze decorated by grotesques of fine lavor and cards in the North European taste.

In the interior, the tomb of D. João de Noronha, Moço, and his wife Isabel de Sousa, classified as a National Monument, stands out, as it is one of the most beautiful examples of the Portuguese Renaissance tumult. The decoration of the naves of Santa Maria’s Church is one of the most outstanding works of all national tiles, it features the most monumental tile compositions based on the brutish and decorative motifs of the ceilings. In the painting, the main highlight goes to the altarpiece of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, painted by Josefa d’Óbidos, possibly being the only work executed by the painter that still maintains in its original location. The tops of the side naves have two beautiful paintings by André Reinoso, the Baptism at the Jordan River and the Transfiguration, while the central retable structure of the chancel is attributed to the painter João da Costa in a cycle of eight paintings dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Also noteworthy is the beautiful 17th century pipe organ in the high choir.