How medieval is Porto Cathedral? The twentieth-century restorations as a moment in a cathedral's history

Abstract

Barral i Altet criticised the nineteenth and twentieth centuries restoration works for having adulterated the image of Romanesque architecture, eventually considering them to be the actual makers of the monuments we see today. These interventions in architecture ended up creating an image of Romanesque and conditioned the result of its study and approach. This paper follows this assumption, focusing on the restoration interventions that, from 1927 to 1946, were carried out in Porto Cathedral under the now-extinct Directorate-General for National Buildings and Monuments (DGEMN), which aimed at recovering what was understood to be its primitive language, that is, that of the Romanesque period. The Cathedral and its surroundings were then profoundly transformed, reconfiguring into a 'sacred acropolis' (one of the main objectives pursued on the occasion of the oficial celebrations of the nation's 'double anniversary', held in 1940) and highlighting its visibility from various points in the city. Aware that the restoration work carried out in this period has definitively conditioned the legibility and apprehension of what is originally Romanesque in Porto Cathedral and what results of the restoration, we seek to demonstrate how this moment has to be a part of the cathedral's history. Thus, we might ask: what is truly Romanesque when we study a church, such as Porto Cathedral, whose historiographic production tends to classify as Romanesque? Starting from this, we highlight the importance of confronting several documental and visual sources produced at the time of the restoration work, in order to understand the architectural structure we see today. We, therefore, intend to underline the importance of studying this moment in the history of a cathedral, which is fundamental for its safeguarding and heritage management.