Batalha, Portugal - Tomb of King Duarte (1391-1438) [right] and Queen Leonor (1402-1445) [left] in the Unfinished Chapel (Capelas Imperfeitas) of the Dominican Abbey of Batalha

The Unfinished Chapel is one of not merely Portugal's, but Europe's, most distinctive and memorable monuments. It was commenced in 1437 by King Duarte I to be a royal mausoleum. (He may have sensed his own end approaching, because he died the following year.) Duarte was one of the sons of King Joao I (the first of the House of Avis) and his English wife, Philippa of Lancaster. Probably due in large part to his father's longevity (he reigned for 45 years), Duarte ruled for only 5 years.

 

Construction on the chapel proceeded in fits and starts until it was abandoned for good in 1519. It is octagonal in shape, with seven chapels opening off of the central octagon, one of which houses the tomb of Duarte and Leonor. Curiously, there is no direct connection to the chapel from the main part of the church; it is directly behind the apse.) There are only two other tombs inside it, one of a duke and another of an infant child. The central octagon was never covered with its roof and remains open to the sky. As the "Blue Guide" explains: "Mateus Fernandes, [King] Manuel's Master of Works, planned an upper octagon with a vault supported by massive buttresses built up from the six smaller intervening pentagonal chapels, but work was abandoned before the piers had risen more than a short distance above the rich cornices of the main storey." The workers and architects were diverted to the task of constructing Manuel's own tomb at Belem, a suburb of Lisbon.

 

The "Blue Guide" further credits Mateus Fernandes "with the great [western entrance] portal of the 'Capelas Imperfeitas' (1509) and the tracery in the cloister windows [of the Royal Cloister], which are among the finest achievements of Manueline architectural decoration."

 

You can page back a few photos to see the decoration in the Royal Cloister.

 

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