Colegiada de Santa Maria e São Miguel de Sintra

Item

Country

PT

Name of institution (English)

The National Archive of Torre do Tombo

Name of institution (official language of the state)

Language of name of institution

por

Contact information: postal address

Alameda da Universidade, 1649-010 Lisbon

Contact information: phone number

00351 210037100

Contact information: web address

Contact information: email

mail@dglab.gov.pt

Reference number

PT/TT/CSMSMS

Type of reference number

Archival reference number

Title (English)

Collegiate of Santa Maria and São Miguel of Sintra

Title (official language of the state)

Colegiada de Santa Maria e São Miguel de Sintra

Language of title

por

Creator / accumulator

Colegiada de Santa Maria e São Miguel de Sintra

Date(s)

1323/1598

Language(s)

lat
por

Extent

10 books and 6 bundles

Type of material

Textual Material

Physical condition

Satisfactory

Scope and content

The Colegiada de Santa Maria e São Miguel de Sintra fonds comprises documentation produced by or related to this collegiate body and the churches of Santa Maria and São Miguel in Sintra. It includes property records, sentences, books of anniversaries and "visitações" (visits), as well as documents concerning the churches of Santa Maria de Óbidos and São Pedro de Sintra and the Monastery of Trindade. Book 8 (PT/TT/CSMSMS/L008), which gathers deeds and inventories of assets belonging to the church of Santa Maria since the 14th century, includes a record (fol. 47v-50) regarding the possession of an estate, Casal dos Corjos, in Sintra's outskirts, which is testified by several witnesses, among them Salomão Abem Crespe, a Jewish resident in Sintra. The document dates from January 10, 1490(?).
As some books and bundles of this fonds contain documentation from before the 16th century, more references to the Jewish community of Sintra are likely to be found here.
We would like to thank Inês Olaia for the information regarding this document.

Archival history

After the extinction of the Collegiate church of Santa Maria e São Miguel, its assets and income were directed to the support of the Seminary of Santarém. The collegiate church's records were also stored in the Seminary's registry. Following a decree of October 2, 1862, it was ordered the transference of the records from diverse collegiate churches in the Seminary of Santarém, including Santa Maria e São Miguel, to the Torre do Tombo. Roberto Augusto da Costa Campos, the diplomatic officer of the archive, was charged with organising and cataloguing the records of the diverse collegiate churches, which were mixed then. Finally, on October 5, 1864, the documents were officially incorporated into the archive.
At the end of the 1990s, the records from religious orders and institutions that were part of the Torre do Tombo collection were reorganised. The organisation by locality was discarded, and the records were aggregated according to their original religious institution, order or dioceses.

Administrative / Biographical history

The churches of Santa Maria and São Miguel in Sintra were erected in the second half of the 12th century, shortly after the conquest of the village from the Moors.
The collegiate church of Santa Maria was instituted in 1254 by prior Lourenço Anes. It belonged successively to the diocese, the archbishopric and the patriarchate of Lisbon. As other collegiates, it was a community of clerics and laymen with the mission of ensuring the religious cult in the church. It was headed by a prior and composed of a number of "raçoeiros" (literally, who received a ration) or "beneficiários" (beneficiaries). Among its priors, there were some illustrious figures, such as D. Diogo de Sousa, dean of the royal chapter and later bishop of Porto.
Between the end of the 13th century and the middle of the 14th century, both the church of Santa Maria and the church of São Miguel were completely reconstructed. At the beginning of the 16th century, Santa Maria suffered an even more significant restoration. The Great Earthquake of 1755 was particularly devastating for both churches. Santa Maria was reconstructed in the following years, but the parish of São Miguel lost demographic importance over the second half of the 18th century and ended up being annexed to the parish of Santa Maria in the first quarter of the 19th century.
After the law of December 27, 1849, which dissolved the collegiate churches in Portugal, the collegiate church of Santa Maria e São Miguel was extinct, and its assets and income were transferred to the Seminary of Santarém.

Access points: locations

Access points: subject terms

Access points: document types

System of arrangement

Storage units (books and bundles) are sequentially numbered.

Access, restrictions

No restrictions, except for records in poor condition or available in digital format

Finding aids

Handwritten and typewritten finding aids available in the Torre do Tombo:
"Catálogo dos documentos da Colegiada de Santa Maria e São Miguel de Sintra, verbetes do espólio de Silva Marques" (Catalogue of documents of the Collegiate church of Santa Maria and São Miguel de Sintra, Silva Marques collection's entries). 1978 (C 1068 1 to C 1068 3).
"Relação dos documentos pertencentes aos cartórios da Colegiada de Santa Maria e São Miguel de Sintra que, em virtude do Decreto de 2 de Outubro de 1862, e da Portaria do Ministério do Reino, de 29 de Janeiro de 1864, foram transferidos do Seminário Patriarcal de Santarém para o Arquivo da Torre do Tombo, em 5 de Outubro de 1864" (Inventory of documents of the Collegiate church of Santa Maria and São Miguel de Sintra transferred from the Seminary of Santarém to the Torre do Tombo on October 5, 1834) (C 448).

Links to finding aids

Author of the description

Carla Vieira, 2021

Item sets

Linked resources

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is part (item) of
Title Alternate label Class
Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo Collections (official language of the state)