Church of Saint Anthony (Igreja de Santo António de Lisboa)
The Church of Saint Anthony stands over the house venerated as the birthplace of Lisbon's most famous son. Pilgrims come down to the crypt room, a minute's walk from the cathedral font where he was baptized.
PORTUGAL · LISBON38.7105° N · 9.1335° W
Location
Lisbon, Portugal 38.7105° N · 9.1335° W
Type
Church Baroque and rococo, rebuilt after 1755 by Mateus Vicente de Oliveira over a much older church
Dedication
Saint Anthony of Lisbon and Padua
Time Needed
30 minutes to half a day
Why Go
Where Lisbon's Saint Was Born
Come here to stand at the beginning of a life the whole Church knows the end of. Anthony is venerated across the world as the saint of Padua, but he was born in this street, baptized in the cathedral sixty seconds uphill, and Lisbon has kept the memory of the house without interruption. The church is small and the crypt smaller, and that is the point: it takes twenty minutes and it is the most personal stop in Catholic Lisbon.
Fernando of Lisbon, Anthony of Padua
Fernando Martins de Bulhões was born in Lisbon around 1195, in a house that stood on this ground near the cathedral. He entered the Augustinian canons, moved to Coimbra, and there saw the bodies of five Franciscans martyred in Morocco brought home. He left the Augustinians for the Franciscans hoping to follow them, sailed for Morocco, fell ill, and was blown by storm to Sicily instead. He became one of the great preachers of his age and died near Padua in 1231, thirty-six years old. A church stood over his birthplace here from the medieval period. The 1755 earthquake brought it down, and the people of Lisbon rebuilt it by public subscription, keeping the crypt room where it had always been. Pope John Paul II prayed here in 1982.
DevotionThe Way Down to the RoomA relief of Anthony with the Child marks the way down to the room venerated as the place of his birth.
Do Not Miss · 4 stops
What to notice.
The Quarto de Santo António
The room in the crypt venerated as the place of Anthony's birth. It is small and low, and it is the devotional centre of Catholic Lisbon.
The relief at the stair
A carved and painted relief of Anthony holding the Child Jesus marks the way down to the crypt. It is the image by which he is most widely known.
The upper church
Rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake by Mateus Vicente de Oliveira, paid for by public subscription when the people of Lisbon refused to let the site go.
The cathedral above the roofline
From the street outside, the crenellated tower of the Sé rises directly behind this church. The two buildings hold his baptism and his birth sixty seconds apart.
What to notice
The church is small and the crypt smaller. This is a place of devotion rather than of architecture, and it rewards stillness more than looking.
Anthony is called of Padua because he died there, but Lisbon has never stopped calling him its own. Here he is simply Santo António.
On 13 June the whole city keeps his feast, and the quiet crypt becomes the busiest few square metres in Lisbon.
Visit Plans · 2 plans · add to a journey
How much time, and what to do with it.
Duration20 minBest forFirst visit
Down to the crypt
3 ordered stops
The short devotional visit most pilgrims make: the upper church, then the room venerated as his birthplace.
The upper church
The relief of Anthony with the Child at the stair
The Quarto de Santo António in the crypt
Duration1 hrBest forUnhurried pilgrims
The church and the city's devotion
4 ordered stops
The same visit with the adjoining municipal museum, which sets six centuries of Lisbon's devotion around the crypt.
The upper church
The Quarto de Santo António in the crypt
The Museu de Santo António next door
The cathedral, one minute uphill, where he was baptized
Relics, Tombs, Sacred Objects
What pilgrims come to venerate here.
Quarto de Santo António (the room of his birth)
Birthplace tradition
Yes, in the crypt
Long-standing local tradition; Patriarchate of Lisbon
Traditional
Venerated since the medieval period as the site of the house in which Anthony was born around 1195. The present church dates from after the 1755 earthquake, so the room is a continuously honoured site rather than surviving fabric of the family house.
Source noteTraditional attributions are presented as tradition, with documentation named where it exists.
Connected Saints
How this place gathers the saints.
One saint holds this church, and Lisbon has never conceded him to anywhere else.
Sixty seconds uphill, with the font at which he was baptized and the relics of the city's patron.
Monastery
Monastery of São Vicente de Fora
A fifteen-minute climb through Alfama to the great Augustinian house above the quarter.
Map · Lisbon, Portugal
Plan around this place.
Editorial sources
Edited from the Patriarchate of Lisbon, the Museu de Lisboa, and the Wikimedia image provenance listed in the credits. The church, the crypt room and the adjoining municipal museum are described as one visit because pilgrims meet them as one place. The birthplace tradition is given as tradition.
