Church of Nossa Senhora da Assunção

This building was inaugurated in 1969 as one of the churches of the Religious Art Renewal Movement and it is a reference in the Portuguese Modernist architecture. The project shows a remarkable sense of integration into the adjoining public garden. The construction is concentrated on the garden’s periphery and leans over it, thus defining the street fronts in the opposite direction. The body of the church occupies a higher point, recovering the churchyard as an extensive terrace that rests on the parish hall. This is one of the first churches designed according to the principles of the Second Vatican Council and displays a new organization of the presbytery, closer to the congregation. The building consists of a nave and a transept, with an irregular polygonal plan with an octagonal base, and includes the parish centre and its dependencies. The concrete determined the construction process: structure and facings in cast-off concrete, framing masonry panels, trim and floors mostly in prefabricated concrete elements.