Santos da casa: capelas, devoção e poderes a sul do Douro no memorialismo paroquial de 1758

Abstract

With this article we pretend to focus on some emerging issues within the historiography and historiography of art about chapels - catholic temples of small or medium size, isolated or linked to manor houses. How was religious art brought outside churches and other public religious buildings by individuals? How was articulated within the territory and within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church the construction and management of chapels by laic founders within a local and regional context? The region to which we refer - Montemuro - , considered in its parishes and smaller divisions - in this case the ecclesiastical district of Douro - presents in its geography aspects that allow, if not to answer, at least touch on some aspects of that issues. As so we will try to answer those questions and others about these religious heritage buildings, addressing private devotions and the motives related to their choice - contextualizing founding and management of chapels in post-Tridentine period, when the Church adopted new control measures on legacies and pious foundations. For that we use a specific historic source called Memórias Paroquiais, dating from 1758, that document and characterize through a series of questions the heritage within parishes.