Igreja de São Miguel: Gold, Sardines and the Heart of Alfama
Why is it significant?
Stand on the small sloping square and face the church: a plain white front, two modest bell towers, a flight of steps, and washing hanging from the balconies right beside it. From the outside, São Miguel looks like a village church that wandered into the city and decided to stay.
Key Facts
| Place | Igreja de São Miguel: Gold, Sardines and the Heart of Alfama |
|---|---|
| Address | Largo de São Miguel, 1100 Lisboa, Portugal |
| Geo Coordinates | 38.71110, -9.12960 |
| Part of Walk | Saints, Sieges and Stairways: Alfama and the Castelo de São Jorge in Lisbon |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand on the small sloping square and face the church: a plain white front, two modest bell towers, a flight of steps, and washing hanging from the balconies right beside it. From the outside, São Miguel looks like a village church that wandered into the city and decided to stay.
It is one of the oldest parishes of Alfama, founded in the twelfth century, soon after the Christian conquest, and dedicated to the archangel Michael, the warrior who weighs souls. The building you see was largely rebuilt in the late 1600s. Then the earthquake of 1755 cracked and damaged it, and it was repaired rather than replaced, which is why it still feels older and more crooked than the churches down in the Baixa.
If the door is open, step inside. The plain shell hides an interior glowing with talha dourada, carved wood covered in gold leaf, twisting columns and cherubs climbing all the way up to the ceiling. This was the Portuguese baroque answer to the question of what to do with Brazilian gold... you covered the inside of your churches with it.
Now imagine this square in June. During the festivities of the popular saints, the whole of Alfama turns into one long street party, and this corner is among the loudest. Grills smoke on every doorstep, sardines are eaten on slices of bread, paper garlands zigzag between the windows and the music goes on until the small hours. Each neighbourhood competes in the marchas, costumed parades with their own songs, and Alfama takes its march very seriously indeed.
A few steps south, around the corner, the stump of a Moorish wall tower stands in Largo de São Rafael, beside a street still called Rua da Judiaria, a quiet reminder of the Jewish quarter that lived here until King Manuel's decree of 1496. And Rua de São Pedro, which brought you up from the fountain, was for generations the market street where fishwives cried the day's catch. Now leave the square by the lanes heading north and east, and look for a very narrow stepped alley climbing between the houses.