Igreja de São Roque

The most expensive church altar ever. Really.

Despite its location amidst tourist hustle and bustle, the Igreja de São Roque is initially inconspicuous. However, the interior tells a different story.

In 1566, the Jesuits established their Portuguese headquarters as the builders, but they didn’t take modesty too seriously and enlisted the later court architect Filippo Terzi from Italy. The wood for the coffered ceiling comes from Germany because trees elsewhere weren’t large enough, and the ceiling painting is stylistically the hippest of its time. As if that weren’t enough, the Jesuit-influenced and very eager for recognition from the Pope, King John V, in the heyday of absolutist megalomania, donated the chapel for St. John the Baptist. Over 100 prominent artists in Rome built it, transported to Lisbon in 1747 on three ships. The altar, made of marble, lapis lazuli, ivory, jade, and amethyst, is said to have cost two million Brazilian Cruzeiros.

The fact that the church survived the earthquake of 1755 provides the increasingly criticized Jesuits with the best arguments for God’s punishment and such, which in turn provides the Enlightenment with the best arguments for expelling the Jesuits from the country. At least the Church of St. Rochus is a miracle when it comes to wasteful spending. For those who want to get an idea of Lisbon before 1755, it’s a gem. The attached museum costs a little admission fee except on Sunday mornings, but it offers not only great Portuguese art but also relics with authenticity certificates from the time of the plague.