A Capela de São Sebastião, Atouguia-Ourém

Abstract

The present dissertation studies the chapel of San Sebastian as its subject, which is in ruins since the nineteenth century. It is located at the foothills of Ourem Castle, in the village of Atouguia. There are a few studies about the subject, and the ones which are known, do not explore the outlines of its construction or its unique architecture. This work starts with the analysis of known data about the temple and the place where it is located in order to find the time frame in which the building was built and in what circumstances, data that is currently not known, which leads to the rise of various legends. Moreover, this dissertation analyzes in detail the chapel of St. Sebastian, outwardly and inwardly. To this end, a survey regarding the temple was held exclusively for this thesis. Within the survey, we can notice a lack of elements to the composition of the chapel, therefore, it was drawn up a reconstruction of the elements that were removed, both outside and inside, always with the focus to see how the chapel would be before starting its ruining process. In an attempt to interpret the singular forms of the chapel, we analyze its metrics and compositional proportions, and then, we try to take out a search of temples that are similar to the chapel of San Sebastian, in order to understand the origin of the design of its reconstruction.