The June “Entail of the Month” presents the Chapel of Isidro de Almeida, established in 1572 in the monastery of São Bento, in Campolide.

Isidro de Almeida, the son of the licentiate and Lisbon citizen Gaspar Lopes de Almeida, and his wife, Catarina de Gouveia, stood out for his achievements as a military expert in war as well as authoring works on the subject. In 1562, he was with the Portuguese forces at the siege of Mazagão and his feats and explosive devices earned him several mentions in Agostinho Gavy de Mendonça’s chronicle.

It was precisely on his way to Africa for another military campaign on the orders of the Monarch that Isidro, then aged 46, wrote his last will and testament and therein founded a chapel. In the testator’s words, he was heading for the African continent “to do what his highness has secretly ordered me to do, which service, as a dangerous thing and a feat, is of such importance to the common good of this kingdom and to the particular purpose of the King, our Lord, as His Highness only knows”.

The chapel, in homage of Pope Gregory the Great, was to be built in the São Bento Monastery, in Campolide, where construction had just begun. Isidro de Almeida bound over his assets with the trust headquartered in a farm in Campolide, later known as Quinta das Castelhanas. In keeping with other coeval bonds, he also established several conditions that were to regulate the succession, including, for instance, the compulsory usage of the surname Almeida.

We know the soldier survived his secret mission to Africa but died soon afterwards, at the end of 1574. In turn, the chapel of Isidro de Almeida remained at least until the first quarter of the 19th century, when the Salema family, relatives of the founder, sought to establish their claim.

To find out more details about this entail, go to this page with all the Entail of the Month information. Here, you may also find out about the other entails made available in the meantime, at: https://www.vinculum.fcsh.unl.pt/entail-of-the-month

You can also contribute to this initiative by making suggestions for future entails of the month and any details you may be able to provide. To this end, please contact the project at: vinculum@fcsh.unl.pt.

The VINCULUM project is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) and led by Maria de Lurdes Rosa, Professor of NOVA FCSH and researcher at the Institute of Medieval Studies, awarded the first ERC Consolidator Grant to a Portuguese researcher in the field of History.