Historical heritage
The historical heritage of Setúbal is rich and varied, with a preserved essence that reflects the identity of a region.
With Arrábida and the ocean on the horizon, Setúbal is located in a place of mystical reflection and defense of the territory, simultaneous exercise of spirituality and affirmation of military power, between the peninsula, the bays and the mountains.
The human presence populated the landscape with chapels, churches, chapels, convents, sanctuaries, castles and fortifications. A testimony of history where different legends and cults lived, different military strategies, as well as habits and customs that are still preserved today.
Convento de Jesus – Museu de Setúbal
The Convento and the Igreja de Jesus are true landmarks in Portuguese architectural history, marking the beginning of the Manueline style. Here, the collections of painting stand out, especially that of the 16th century, sacred sculpture, jewelery, tiles and other decorative arts.
The Museu de Setúbal has been operating in the Convento de Jesus since 1961. The collection of the Museu de Setúbal / Convento de Jesus belongs to the main artistic treasures of the city. Among them are the 14 panels of the Altarpiece of the Igreja de Jesus, known as “Primitives of Setúbal” and on display at the Municipal Gallery of Banco de Portugal. The Igreja de Jesus, as well as the cloister and the Casa do Capítulo do Convento, , have been classified as national monuments since 1910 and 1933.
The imposing military construction known as the fort, fortress or castle of São Filipe is the result of the orders of the Spanish monarch Filipe II on the fortification of the coastline that protects Setúbal and the mouth of the river Sado. Attributed for many years to Filipe Terzi, it is now known that it was designed by Captain Fratino in 1583, being composed of an irregular polygonal plant, in a six-pointed star, with six bastions, and on a steep slope over the sea.
During the century. XVII several cases of disembarkation and looting in Sesimbra are known to have been carried out by pirates. The construction of a line of coastal forts, which could defend the towns against attacks by Moroccan privateers and Spanish forces, became inevitable in the 17th century.
Forte de S. Filipe
Casa do Corpo Santo – Museu do Barroco
The Casa do Corpo Santo was ecompleted in 1714 next to a section of the 17th century wall of Setúbal, which forms the east wall of the building. The designation comes from the name of the saintly protector of the Confraria dos Navegantes of the city, which was installed there for centuries. The patron was São Pedro Gonçalves (or González) Telmo, protector of the castaways, a Dominican friar, born in Castile in the 12th century and beatified in the 13th century, known as Corpo Santo.
The house has several sets of Baroque tiles designed by the master P.M.P. Currently, it houses the Museu do Barroco, one of the nuclei of the Museu de Setúbal / Convento de Jesus.
This is a municipal museum space, attributed to the birthplace of Manuel Maria Barbosa du Bocage, in 1765. You can visit the long-running exhibition “Bocage – Polémico. Discussed. Genial”, which runs through the “bocagiana” chronology, starting in the poet’s family and ending in the way it was seen and interpreted after death, in 1805, at the age of 40.
In the cultural equipment, there is the Documentation Center and the Photographic Archive Américo Ribeiro, services that preserve a significant part of the modern history of the municipality of Setúbal. Since the completion of the requalification project that benefited in 2016, Casa Bocage has displayed a tiled panel on the outside patio offered by Galeria Ratton and created by the artist Andreas Stöcklein as part of an artistic intervention in the Quebec Tunnel, also carried out that year.
Casa Bocage
Quartel Municipal do 11
The former Barracks of the Infantry Regiment 11 was a building acquired by the City Council from Turismo de Portugal. Since 2013, after renovating the property, it has integrated, together with the exhibition space, the School of Hospitality and Tourism of Setúbal.
The requalification works of the 11th Barracks included the preservation of several elements that integrated the installations of the old military bataria, such as facades and arcades. The project also contemplated the recovery of some structures of the Baluarte da Conceição, built in 1692, during the reign of D. Pedro II, equipment that integrated the old defensive wall of Setúbal.
Convento da Arrábida
Related to the Legend of Hildebrando and with pilgrimages and / or candles dedicated to Sr.ª da Arrábida (prior to its own foundation), the Arrábida Convent constitutes a paradigmatic case of landscape building. In its 25 hectares, the Arrábida convent complex comprises the Convento Velho in the highest part of the mountain, with some precarious cells dug in the rock next to the hermitage of Memory, where not only the first monks lived, but also the last, the lay friar José de Nossa Senhora, found dead at the Santa Catarina hermitage on November 11, 1870; the guardhouses or chapels of the Passion of Christ, built on the crest of the mountain; the Convento Novo, or Conventinho, located halfway up the hillside, which includes the church, six chapels, 27 cells, kitchen, dining room, bookstore, clock tower, washing house and several fountains; the garden and sanctuary of Bom Jesus; and, in autonomous installations, the rooms of the Dukes of Aveiro and the old houses for pilgrims, nowadays adapted to hotel establishments. The convent was founded in 1542 by Frei Martinho de Santa Maria, Castilian Franciscan to whom D. João de Lencastre (1501-1571), first Duke of Aveiro, ceded the lands on the hillside.
Previous to the construction, there existed today the Convento Velho, the Ermida da Memória, a place of great pilgrimages, with which, for two years, the first four arrábidos friars lived in cells dug in the rocks: Martinho de Santa Maria, Diogo from Lisbon, Francisco Pedraita and São Pedro de Alcântara. D. Jorge de Lencastre, son of the 1st Duke of Aveiro, continued the work by having a fence built to seal the convent area. Later, his cousin D. Álvaro, built the inn that served as his lodging and designed the guardhouses, on the crest of the hill, that connect the convent to the foot of the mountain, leaving, however, three to be finished. In turn, D. Ana Manique de Lara, daughter-in-law of D. Álvaro, ordered the construction of two chapels, while D. Álvaro’s son, D. António de Lencastre, ordered the construction of the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus in 1650. In 1863, Casa de Palmela acquired the convent, but the works only started in the 40s and 50s of the following century. Forty years later, in 1990, its then owner, Manuel de Souza Holstein Beck, sold the convent and the surrounding area to Fundação Oriente.
