São Roque Museum and Igreja de São Roque

The Museu de São Roque was one of the first art museums to be established in Portugal. It opened to the public on 11 January 1905, under the name ‘Museum of the Treasury of the Chapel of St John the Baptist’, in reference to the important collection of Italian art that led to its creation. Since its opening, it has been housed in the building of the former Casa Professa of the Society of Jesus in Lisbon, a space adjoining the Igreja de São Roque, which had been donated to the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa in 1768, following the expulsion of the Jesuits.

The Igreja de São Roque is a 16th-century Jesuit church, designed by the architect Afonso Álvares, master builder to King João III, and completed by Filipo Terzi, architect to King Filipe I of Portugal. Characterised by its architectural simplicity, it houses an important collection of gilded woodcarvings, azulejos, paintings and sculptures, a unique collection of reliquaries, and the Chapel of St John the Baptist, commissioned by King João V from Rome and designed by Luigi Vanvitelli and Nicola Salvi.