"A chapel dedicated to Saint Amaro…south of Oeiras village"
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 




Floor aspect after recuperation

We were asked to replace the chapel's choir floor as it was severely damaged and offered no security.

After a first evaluation at the works site and the removal of the damaged coating it was possible to diagnose several pathologies caused by microrganisms and xylophages that had damaged not only the floor coating but also the entire joint supporting structure that was completely rotten. So we proposed also to eliminate all coating and structural elements attacked, namely the floor support and fake ceiling, including the central support beam.




Before



After

The marbling frescos of the church had been recently recuperated and a very old (SA7) false door painting covered by several paint coats was found, so the works had to be very carefully carried out so as not to damage such detailed recuperation. We scrupulously respected the wood sheet originally used; and tried also to reproduce the pre-existing plaster-works using copies as similar as possible in order not to spoil the whole.

Santo Amaro de Oeiras Chapel

Before
After

Recuperation and rehabilitation of an unique architectonic piece that was according to an anonymous writer of the 19th century "a chapel dedicated to Saint Amaro, situated on a high hill towering over the sea south to the village of Oeiras. This chapel often visited by pilgrims that came all the year round to pray to the Saint and ask him to heal their illness and thank him for the miracles performed, and left memories of gratefulness, on the altar retable, making him famous for his miracles. D. Manuel I, the king, thinking he was lame, came to visit that saint sometimes at his chapel, and after praying enjoyed the beautiful view over the sea that he could see from over there… And to build the mentioned chapel, as it was land of His Highness, they asked him, to concede the grace of offering the said chapel the land surrounding her that contained nothing more than rocks that could be used to build the chapel. And once the request was granted they immediately started to build the new chapel at the same place of the old Santo Amaro one that always kept the name of the saint, not only the chapel but also the place".

As new woods were applied (wood sheet and others), the natural tones of which are totally different from the old ones, due to the natural aging, it was necessary to apply a darkening over painting to obtain the same colour.
Another aspect that called all our attention was the need to keep the choir's wooden rail in place during the recovering works. For fear the surrounding area had possibly been contaminated all existing woods and the newly applied ones were extensively treated with xylophage products.
The floor was laid and then machine polished and painted with opaque varnish. We finished the work by painting the spots that we could not help damaging.		  

(C)2002 Paulo Jones Lda
  "Briocolage & Decoração" Magazine - Photographs by Sara matos e David Aço.