Hidden behind the limewash, frescoes painted in the seventeenth century now have been revealed at the Church of Alvalade, Santiago do Cacém in the Setúbal region.
Now that the restorations are complete the council is to open the church to the public and display the frescos along with an archaeological museum based on a necropolis found in the vault.
Discovered in 2014 during some repair work, the Celestial Concert and the Holy Trinity now are fit for display after months of painstaking work to conserve and restore the art.
Innumerable layers of white limewash have been scraped away to expose the artwork that was painted about 400 years ago in the first half of the sixteenth century.
"The construction of the church was completed in 1570, so we are talking about the end of the sixteenth century, and the figurative painting will have been done 40 to 50 years later in the first half of the seventeenth century between 1600 and 1650" said art restorer Artúr Pestana who explained that the yellow, brown, black and white colours were made from natural pigments.
“The ‘heavenly concert’ is a concert of angels with woodwinds, violins, guitars and lutes all around the central theme of the Holy Trinity" explained Pestana.
The conservation and restoration work led to the discovery of decorative flower motifs that were even older than the frescoes, dating from the time the building was finished in 1570.
The council and parish council of Alvalade have paid to have the roof fixed as well as archaeological and anthropological excavations a few years ago that led to the discovery of a necropolis inside the church.
"The €300,000 project is nearing completion, we want to proceed and open the church in the first half of next year," said the president Santiago do Cacém council, Álvaro Beijinha, who soon will have a fourth museum to add to his collection of museums for Rural Crafts, Bees, and Flower.
The church in Alvalade finished as a place of worship in 1861, since which time it has been used as a shoe factory, a house, a political party headquarters, a Scout centre, an exhibition hall and party venue.
