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This paper examines the history and patrimonial legacy of the Irish seminary founded in Lisbon in 1590 to educate young Catholics who had left Ireland due to persecutions associated with Anglican rule. Designed as a centre for teaching Latin, the Arts, and Theology, the institution played a significant role in training clergy, including several bishops and archbishops, while simultaneously functioning as a meeting point for different cultural and religious groups in Early Modern Europe.
Administered by the Society of Jesus, the seminary received support from António de Mascarenhas and Claudio Aquaviva, as well as the patronage of António Fernandes Ximenes. Ximenes donated the houses in which the institution was established and was later buried in its church. Situated in a prominent location overlooking the Tagus River, the seminary was part of a wider network of Irish colleges established during the Catholic Reformation.
Drawing on unpublished documentation from Portuguese archival collections and the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (ARSI), this study analyses the material and immaterial dimensions of the seminary's heritage, such as the religious festivals. It approaches the seminary as a space shaped by processes of construction, use and reinterpretation. Particular attention is given to the ways in which institutional and everyday uses of space contributed to the formation of a sense of place, establishing the seminary as a meeting point for Portuguese and Irish communities.
The study examines the extent to which the seminary may be understood as a case study in which the notion of genius loci remains strongly embedded, both in the distinctive tangible qualities of its built setting and in intangible dimensions, such as the memories of experiences lived within its walls.
Nota biográfica | Short Bio
Maria João Pereira Coutinho has a PhD in History (specialising in Art, Heritage, and Restoration) from the University of Lisbon (2011), and she is currently advisor to the president of the Macau Scientific and Cultural Centre (CCCM) and associate researcher at the Art History Institute, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa – School of Social Sciences and Humanities / IN2PAST – Associate Laboratory for Research and Innovation in Heritage, Arts, Sustainability and Territory. She participates in several funded research projects in Portugal and abroad. She has participated in various scientific meetings and published books, book chapters and articles. Her research mainly focuses on the material and visual cultures of the early modern period, including circulation, reception, and cultural transfer processes. She is also a member of the “Société Internationale d'Études Jésuites” (SIEJ) and of the Sociedade Portuguesa de Estudos de História de Construção (SPEHC). https://www.cienciavitae.pt/portal/en/A415-931B-5D04
| Palavras-chave | Keywords | Early Modern Europe; Construction; Space and place; Uses of space; Jesuits |
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