Altar of the Crib

This small retable of gilt wood is of the same typology as the other 17th-century retables in the church, but diferente enough from them to assign it to a diferente - a still unidentified - workshop. In the pavement there is a tombstone that marks of the grave of D. Francisco de Bragança. The central theme of the altar is the crib of Jesus. The engraved silver manger is in the form of a reliquary and contains fragments of wood from the crib in Santa Maria Maior, in Rome, given by the Pope Clement VIII (1592-1605) to Fr. João Álvares, Assistant of the Society of Jesus in Portugal. The silverwork, dated 1615, was offered by D. Maria Rolim da Gama, wife of Luís da Gama, who bequeathed a large sum of Money for the criation of the reliquary. The picture in the roundel above the altar, representing a group of angels, is attributed to Bento Coelho da Silveira (ca.1630-1708).