The completion of the Church of Santa Engrácia in the context of the valorization of the Baroque style in Portugal and the principles of the international Charters of Athens and Venice (1953-1966)

Abstract

This article aims to frame, nationally and internationally, the intervention criteria adopted in the Church of Santa Engrácia, when, in the midst of the Estado Novo regime, it was decided to complete the unfinished Baroque building, interrupted more than two centuries ago. In the challenge faced, the advances of the History of Art proved to be fundamental, in particular the new status given to the Portuguese Baroque from the 1950s onwards, and the knowledge of the principles for the conservation and restoration of heritage disseminated, both, in the Athens (1931) and in the Venice (1964) Charters. These combined circumstances, in which we documented the interdisciplinary collaboration between architect and art historian, reinforce Santa Engrácia's condition as a paradigmatic example of monumental restoration in Portugal, coordinated by the Direção Geral dos Edifícios e Monumentos Nacionais [General Directorate of National Buildings and Monuments] (DGEMN), under the maxim widely spread since the Athens Charter that “each case is a particular case".