Choir Stalls

The imposing and monumental Manueline Chair, in carved and gilded wood, began to be built in 1513. This chair is a reference work that reveals the Hispano-Flemish tendencies of the person responsible for the original design - the Flemish carver Machim. This chair is a rare example of a Manueline chair that has reached our days unscathed, preserving its original design, in fact, with this size it is truly the only one!

The construction took place in three successive projects, carried out by foreign master carvers-sculptors who moved to Portugal: Machim, João Alemão and Francisco Lorete. This chair was initially in the main chapel, having been moved to the high choir, so that the tombs of D. Afonso Henriques and D. Sancho I could be installed here.

At the top of Cadeiral, each bas-relief illustrates an episode from the Maritime Epic of Portuguese Discoveries.

The chairs are decorated with a profusion of fabled animals, and the chairs' miserios present numerous hagiographies, allegories, symbolisms and battles between vices and virtues.

The iconographic symbolism is very rich and has not yet been fully deciphered, which maintains a certain aura of mystery.