Our Lady of Quietude (chapel)

In the locality (sítio) of Alecrins (‘rosemary bushes’), in the parish (freguesia) of Santo António (‘St Anthony’), stood the chapel of Nossa Senhora da Quietação, of which today not even traces remain. It was better known as the chapel of Alecrins, and in a reference to it made in 1680 it was even called the church of Alecrins, despite its cramped dimensions. The unusual name Quietação comes from the fact that the chapel’s patron saint was the mystery representing the peace and tranquillity that the Blessed Virgin (Santíssima Virgem) enjoyed, in the retirement of the house of Nazaré (‘Nazareth’), in the company of the Child Jesus and the patriarch St Joseph.

It was Lourenço de Matos Coutinho and his wife Dona Mariana de Ornelas de Vasconcelos who founded this chapel in 1670, in fulfilment of a vow they had made to the Blessed Virgin. They built it on the quinta (country estate) they owned in the locality of Alecrins, which they had inherited from his father and her father-in-law, the holder of the entail (morgado) Bento de Matos Coutinho, who in turn had acquired it by purchase from Simão Gonçalves da Câmara and Jorge da Câmara Esmeraldo. It was on this quinta and in this chapel that in 1677 its founder instituted the entailed estate (morgadio) of Alecrins. The present representative of this entailed estate is Dr Rui Bettencourt da Câmara (1921).