Chapel of São Pedro de Balsemão

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The small chapel of Sao Pedro de Balsemao (near Lamego, Portugal) was built in the Visigothic period. Its notable newer features include the baroque South gate, and the arrangement of the western facade, which adjoins a later residential building.

The surviving elements of the original structure include the general arrangement of the interior: three naves separated by three ultra-semicircular arches over corinthian capitals, and the apse formed of a single rectangular chapel. The many geometrical decorative elements are also original and more numerous than those of any other Iberian monument of the period.

In the tenth century, with the repopulation of the area, the church was renovated. The details of this are not fully understood, but there are indications that it amounted to general maintenance of the existing structure.

In the Lower Middle Ages the church was the see of the Porto bishop D. Alfonso Pieres, who was buried in the apse in a tomb of gothic style including a sculptured depiction of Calvary. By the eighteenth century, the chapel was used as a family vault of the land owners. It was restored in the mid-twentieth century.

The chapel is open to visitors.