Ever wondered what the rest of St Paul’s – the surviving facade of which is Macau’s most famous landmark – would have looked like? It just so happens there’s a model, of sorts, in Coimbra, a city in central Portugal.
“The Church of St Paul, in Macau, was built to be a copy of the New Cathedral of Coimbra,” city culture official Sofia Serra explained to the newspaper Publico in 2013, upon the launch of a Chinese version of Coimbra’s tourism website.
Academic papers published in a 2020 book – also connect the New Cathedral with Macau’s St Paul’s (referred to as Igreja da Madre de Deus, or the Church of the Mother of God) and explain how the Jesuits of Coimbra influenced ecclesiastical developments in Macau from the 16th century, as well as vice versa.
However, it stops short of claiming the Japanese Christian builders of St Paul’s granite facade were working from plans sent from Portugal directly.
It is unclear where Serra got her information – and a major difference is that St Paul’s was built largely of wood (hence its vulnerability to the 1835 fire that destroyed it), and Coimbra’s cathedral of stone – but the similarity in the shape of the facades of these two Jesuit edifices is evident.
And do not be fooled by the name: the New Cathedral (or Se Nova de Coimbra) dates back to 1598, 22 years before work on Macau’s distinctive facade began.
Inside the hushed Se Nova, deserted on a recent Saturday afternoon, tall Corinthian columns flank a wide nave and religious frescoes adorn a high, barrel-vaulted ceiling complete with cupola. Both transept arms and the apse are dominated by huge, gilt wood altarpieces dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries, and side chapels are decorated with religious Baroque art.
As Se Nova’s name suggests, Coimbra also has an “Old Cathedral”, the 12th-century Romanesque-style Sé Velha, which is one of the oldest of the many ancient buildings that characterise Portugal’s sixth largest city.
In fact, it is difficult to turn a corner in the old town without being confronted by another 16th-century church or Jesuit college.
And it is not just religious buildings: Coimbra has one of the oldest universities in the world (established in 1290) and centuries-old civic spaces such as the Sala da Cidade (“city room”), the venue for the official opening of Anozero’24, the latest iteration of Coimbra’s contemporary art biennial.
On April 6, among the hanging textile artwork of Spanish artist Teresa Lanceta, the curators stood alongside the town’s mayor to launch a show that bears the thematic title The Phantom of Liberty.
Biennial art can be found in a variety of venues across the city, but the lion’s share of exhibits – by more than 25 artists – are to be found in the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Nova, itself an imposing building redolent of a rich past.
Overlooking the Mondego River from the west bank, the 17th-century monastery and its substantial grounds were home to a community of nuns for centuries, but have a more recent history as a military barracks, the army having moved out in 2006.
The main residential block and many outbuildings have been left to moulder since, providing an atmosphere that “resonates with rituals, fears, mysticism, dreams and the daily lives of those who inhabited” them, according to the biennial programme.
(The authorities have just given the green light to turn at least some of the monastery, a declared National Monument, into a luxury hotel.)
On the opposite side of the Mondego, the hilltop historical centre of Coimbra is dominated by the university, its various imposing departmental buildings arranged around and beyond the Patio das Escolas, a 6,000 square metre (65,000 square foot) forum.
The Patio is temporarily home to “Fort”, an anti-colonial statement in flags and sandbags by Angolan-born artist Yonamine, and permanently home to a number of buildings that attract tourists.
Important academic ceremonies are held in the Sala dos Capelos, which means “Hall of Capes” – and many who visit this part of the university are no doubt drawn by a love of the fictional Hogwarts as well as an appreciation of traditional education.
Walk the streets of Coimbra in ignorance and before long, you may start to wonder why there are so many Harry Potter-themed tour groups roaming the city, draped in the black gowns familiar to fans of the JK Rowling creation.
But these are not Potterheads. Coimbra University uniforms consist of a white shirt, black tie, blazer and skirt for the young women, with trousers and a jacket for the men, a look completed by those long black cloaks – which caught Rowling’s eye while she worked as an English teacher in nearby Porto, in 1991.
Coimbra is almost midway between Portugal’s two main cities, Porto and Lisbon – a train ride of less than two hours from either – and offers an intriguing glimpse of the nation’s imperial past.
With its black taxis, Super Bock beer and Senado Square-like paving along the pedestrian Rua Visconde da Luz, the city’s main shopping street, a hint of historical Macau can be discerned, too, even if the links are not as direct as some would suggest.
