Lala
Private family chapel
Mateus Palace Museum. The tour includes a visit to the private family chapel, which is annexed and connected to the palace by the rear. It is currently closed to the public and to worship, except on Easter Sunday as it is the feast of the patron. Therefore the only way to see inside is by paying for this joint tour which cost just €7.50. Like the palace, it's of baroque style, but it was completed a few years later than the house and it was designed by José Álvares Rego. On the main façade you can see the large window above the door, the shields of the family, and the great curved pediment supported on four columns (two on each side of the door).
It has a rectangular nave and choir loft. It is covered by a dome lantern which reaches 30 meters high. The main chapel is bound by an arc between iron columns, and covered with a barrel vault. There are several side altars and stone carvings from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, but what is most striking is the tomb of Jose Maria de Sousa Botelho who died in 1825, and you can see the remains of his broken bones, which may seem a little creepy. There are also fragments of tiles on the wall from the seventeenth century, coming from the Convent of Santa Clara disappeared. From the chapel passed to the sacristy, covered by a coffered ceiling decorated with paintings from the seventeenth century depicting religious figures. You are not permitted to take pictures whilst inside the chapel.
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