A matter of decency
Of all the baroque and opulently gold-plated church interiors of Porto this one, Nossa Senhora de Vitoria, is perhaps the least exuberant one. The most decent one, seen from my Protestant and liberal viewpoint. Decency is a tricky category. In this case, for two reasons: the church, built on land once belonging to the Jewish community, has "Victory" in its title and, secondly, the traditional defence of the unbelievably expensive gold-plating (namely, that believers would think they were already in heaven) does no longer work. Is it not remarkable that the Church in Porto wrapped itself in gold when, at the same time, in France you had the Revolution of 1789 doing away with Christianity?
A matter of decency
Of all the baroque and opulently gold-plated church interiors of Porto this one, Nossa Senhora de Vitoria, is perhaps the least exuberant one. The most decent one, seen from my Protestant and liberal viewpoint. Decency is a tricky category. In this case, for two reasons: the church, built on land once belonging to the Jewish community, has "Victory" in its title and, secondly, the traditional defence of the unbelievably expensive gold-plating (namely, that believers would think they were already in heaven) does no longer work. Is it not remarkable that the Church in Porto wrapped itself in gold when, at the same time, in France you had the Revolution of 1789 doing away with Christianity?