Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Our Lady of the Conception Chapel


Conceição Beach, Cascais
This small chapel next to the ocean survived the earthquake followed by a tsunami in 1755 without much damage.
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In 1646 King João IV has stated Our Lady of Conception would be the patroness of the portuguese kingdom.
This is why you can find religious buildings having her name all over the country and in former colonies such as Brazil, Angola, Mozambique or Goa (India).
There also are forts named after the saint in Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique, Iran (Hormuz Island) and East Timor.
Parish, square or institution names can be found too in Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Saint Thomas & Prince or Macao (China).

15 comments:

B SQUARED said...

Fascinating how the culture has traveled.

Olivier said...

une belle petite eglise

Dina said...

I hope Our (well, Your) Lady will protect all those places with her name.

Unknown said...

Well, Dina, I don't want to be mean but to be quite honest, when I think of slavery or, mostly recently, civil wars I don't think she has done a great job in many of those places!...

Cezar and Léia said...

Simples e LINDAAAAAAAAAA!
Eu fiquei encantada pelo detalhe do sino e da cruz!
Léia

joo said...

Really pretty chapel!

Anya said...

Many history behind the Lady chapel ;)

Lois said...

Very pretty! I like the gray trim.

VP said...

A brave chapel withstanding a quake and a tsunami. Thanks for reminding me one of my favorite subject, the Age of Discovery!

James said...

What a wonderful old place. I bet the inside is pretty interesting too.

Maia T said...

Beautiful chapel and very old too. It survived the earthquake and tsunami in 1755 and much more after that.
Excellent photo.

Lowell said...

This structure must be very, very well built. As usual, you've posted a delightful photograph! So much religion! Wonder who dreamed up "Our Lady of Conception"?

T. Becque said...

How wonderful to be surrounded by such history. Is it still in use today?

Small City Scenes said...

A beauty of a Chapel. It has withstood not only the passage of time but all that Mother Nature and man could throw at it. Our Lady was hard at work. MB

Dina said...

Oh, yeah, I looked at that list of countries again. I see what you mean!