National Pantheon

A first church dedicated to Saint Engratia was founded here around 1568. The present building was designed by the royal architect João Antunes and begun in 1681, but work stalled after his death in 1712, and the dome was only completed in 1966. The long delay gave Portuguese the expression "obras de Santa Engrácia" for a project that never ends. In 1916, during the First Republic, the church was designated the National Pantheon.

The church is built on a Greek-cross plan, with a square tower at each corner, undulating baroque facades inspired by Borromini and a portal where angels hold the Portuguese coat of arms. Inside, polychrome marble covers the curved spaces under the high central dome, and there is an 18th-century baroque organ that came from Lisbon Cathedral. Buried here are the presidents Manuel de Arriaga, Teófilo Braga, Sidónio Pais and Óscar Carmona, the writers Almeida Garrett, Eça de Queiroz and Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, Amália Rodrigues and the footballer Eusébio. Cenotaphs honour Luís de Camões, Vasco da Gama, Pedro Álvares Cabral and Henry the Navigator.