Church of Saint Anthony of Lisbon

The Church of Saint Anthony of Lisbon, also called the Church of Saint Anthony at the Sé, stands in the square of the same name, adjoining the Lisbon Cathedral. It is the Lisbon sanctuary of the city’s most popular saint: tradition places the house where Fernando de Bulhões, who would become Saint Anthony, was born on this site, and it is one of the places of devotion associated with the Saint Anthony festivities. The building seen today, however, is a late eighteenth-century construction, built after the 1755 earthquake.

The birthplace

According to Turismo de Lisboa, it is believed that the church was built on the site of the saint’s birth, where a chapel commissioned by King João II had already stood, and that the saint’s image survived the earthquake. The national heritage register summarises the earlier history as a medieval foundation with a Manueline campaign, before the present building. This is a tradition of place, upheld by the city and the Church, and not a fact proven by documents: it should be read as such.

Next door, the Museu de Lisboa – Santo António occupies an adjoining space and is devoted to the life and cult of the saint, according to Turismo de Lisboa. Press and guidebooks also mention an underground crypt that tradition associates with the floor of the birthplace; we have found no description of this crypt in an official source, so we do not treat it here as a confirmed fact.

The post-earthquake reconstruction

The earthquake of 1755 destroyed the earlier church. The national register dates the present building to 1767–1787 and attributes the design to Mateus Vicente de Oliveira. The result, the register notes, combines disparate elements: the portal still belongs to the Joanine Baroque, and the cartouche on the south façade is Rococo. The church has a single nave, covered by a barrel vault, and makes abundant use of marble. For the general context, see Baroque architecture in Portugal.

What to see inside

The national register highlights three ensembles. The first is the pictorial richness of the chapels, conceived by Pedro Alexandrino. The second is the sacristy tile scheme, from the second half of the eighteenth century, of interest to anyone following the azulejo. The third is the neo-Medieval ironwork grilles by the architect Vasco Regaleira, which imitate the famous grille of Lisbon Cathedral.

Turismo de Lisboa also mentions the underground corridor lined with azulejos and the paintings by Pedro Alexandrino in the nave as elements that survived the earthquake. These two indications come from a promotional text and do not fully match the dating in the national register, so the question of what predates 1755 is not reliably answered in this text.

Classification and protection

The church and the sacristy were classified as a National Monument by Decree No. 19 484 of 24 February 1931, published in the Diário do Governo No. 64 (1st series) of 18 March 1931. The text of the decree declares as a national monument “the church of Saint Anthony of Lisbon and the sacristy, with the decoration that adorns them: metalwork, straw-stuffed woodwork and altarpieces, almost entirely by Pedro Alexandrino”. The special protection zone was established by an ordinance published in the Diário do Governo, 2nd series, No. 213, of 11 September 1961, covering the Cathedral, other buildings in the nucleus and the church itself. The national register also notes the building’s links to Pombaline Lisbon; it is not a World Heritage Site.

Planning the visit

The church is on Largo de Santo António da Sé, in Santa Maria Maior, a short walk from the Cathedral and the route to São Jorge Castle. In our consultation of 5 November 2026 we found no current visiting hours in an official source, and secondary sources disagree; Turismo de Lisboa lists the Museu de Lisboa as a contact (218 860 447; [email protected]). The church is an active place of worship, especially busy in June, so please respect ceremonies and confirm access before going.

To continue, see the Lisbon Cathedral, the city of Lisbon and the Church of São Roque, another major Lisbon church with a strong presence of gilded woodcarving and azulejos.

Photograph by Miguel Ángel García, dated 21 November 2023. Original on Wikimedia Commons, under CC BY 2.0; resized and compressed for the web, without altering the composition.