Sé Nova (New Cathedral)

Category: Monument|Place of worship|World Heritage Site

The temple belonged to the Society of Jesus until its expulsion from Portugal by the Marquis of Pombal in 1759. Construction began in 1598, but the church was not consecrated until 1640.

Established in 1542 by the Society of Jesus, it was the first college of the Order in Portugal and the largest in the city, also known as the College of the Eleven Thousand Virgins.

Its purpose was to prepare missionaries for all the territories discovered and conquered by the Portuguese. With the expulsion of the Society of Jesus from Portugal in 1759, the College's assets were annexed to the University Treasury. The church became the Cathedral (Sé Nova) of Coimbra in 1772. The collegiate part of the building, with the Pombaline reform of the University, was adapted between 1773 and 1775 to new functions: the Natural History Museum, of high historical and scientific value.

This college was attended by men of high intellectual stature, such as the famous orator, writer, and missionary Father António Vieira.

The façade is divided into two distinct phases of construction and design, displaying four statues of Jesuit saints that recall the building's roots (Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Saint Francis Xavier, Saint Francis Borgia, and Saint Aloysius Gonzaga).

The interior of the temple has a Latin cross plan, with barrel vaults and a dome in the transept, with pulpits almost in the center of the church, in an artistic design of the Counter-Reformation. Among the various points of interest, the altarpieces in the side chapels, the neoclassical organs, and the Manueline baptismal font by Pêro and Filipe Henriques stand out.