Basilica of Our Lady of the Martyrs
In Basilica of Our Lady of the Martyrs, once stood a small chapel built to house the image of the Virgin brought by English crusaders, known locally as Nossa Senhora dos Mártires. The parish was created after the reconquest of Lisbon from the Moors in 1147, and early tradition holds that the first baptism in the city occurred there under the Virgin’s protection, with King Afonso Henriques believed to have sought her aid. By 1755, the hermitage had grown into a large Baroque church, emblematic of the pre‑earthquake religious architecture in Lisbon’s urban fabric. A catastrophic tremor that year completely destroyed the church, and the current basilica was designed by Reinaldo Manuel dos Santos, with dedication by religious authorities in March 1784. The structure you would have seen here was part of the Pombaline rearrangement that reshaped Lisbon after the earthquake, blending Baroque with late Neoclassical elements. …
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