Church of Santa Engrácia (National Pantheon)

Look up at that white dome. Its story gave the Portuguese an expression they still use: when a job never seems to end, it's obras de Santa Engrácia, Santa Engrácia's works.

1A theft and a sentence

In 1568 the Infanta Maria, daughter of King Manuel I, founded a church here to hold relics of Saint Engracia of Zaragoza. In January 1630 the reliquary was found desecrated. Suspicion fell on Simão Pires Sólis, a young New Christian, who was denounced to the Inquisition. He was condemned and executed in 1631, right here on Campo de Santa Clara.

2The curse

According to tradition, before he died Simão cried out that, as surely as he was dying innocent, the works would never be finished. Legend adds that he kept silent to protect his lover, a nun from the convent next door, and that the real thief was found later.

The 1631 sentence is documented; Simão's words and his secret love live on in popular memory.

What is certain is that the church was badly damaged in 1681, that the present building was begun in 1682 to a design attributed to João Antunes, and that the work dragged on for centuries. In 1916 it was declared the National Pantheon while still unfinished. The dome was not closed until 1966.

3What to look out for

• The dome, from the twentieth century, on top of a seventeenth-century baroque body.
• The Greek-cross plan, with undulating façades, rare in Lisbon.
• Campo de Santa Clara, where Simão was executed. Inside lie, among others, the fado singer Amália Rodrigues and the footballer Eusébio.