Unfinished Chapels

BATALHA:Unfinished Chapels .

See where this picture was taken. [?]

The Unfinished Chapels remain as a testimony of the fact that the monastery was never actually finished. They form a separate octagonal structure tacked on the choir of the church (via a retrochoir) and only accessible from the outside. It was commissioned in 1437 by King Duarte I as a second royal mausoleum for himself and his descendants. But he and his queen Leonor of Aragon are the only ones buried here. The original design, begun by Huguet, was altered by successive architects, especially Mateus Fernandes (who is buried inside the church). The octagonal rotunda has seven radiating hexagonal chapels. In the corners of the chapels stand the massive unfinished buttresses, that were intended to support the vault. These pillars, designed by Diogo Boitac, are decorated with Manueline motives carved in stone.


VMRibeiro.net
VRPhoto