By Image-Searching these details I found out that the Chateau Mukhrani in Georgia got a replica made in Graça in October 2015.
The horror tiles in Graça are among Lisbon’s best
Tile Lovers - you wont read about these tiles in your guidebooks
Have you ever heard about the Martyrdom of Georgian Queen Ketevan?
Probably not.
I have – but only a few years ago when I went to our neighbour Convento da Graça to see The Procession of Corpus Christi exhibition. It wasn’t the 1587 clay miniatures that caught my interest.
What caught my eyes was the extremely beautiful, tiled panels that cover the huge convent hall’s long walls. Some of the most beautiful I’ve seen.
But what was more interesting: The tiled panels were the ones I have been looking for since I read about them in an Indian Newspaper ages ago. About a Catholic queen that got tortured to death because she refused to convert to Islam… a story that was described by Portuguese monks on tiled panels in details that are not for sensible souls.
These panels were all around me!!!
I forgot all about the mini sculptures and got soaked into the horror story that unrolled in front like an old fashioned cartoon. Only in man-sized beautiful blue tiles.
I had found them – they were on the walls that surrounded the miniatures miniatures!
The panels are amazing – or should I say: they are grotesquely amazing.
Not so much because of the very detailed scenery of all kinds of torture – after all it’s nothing compared to what our kids see on TV, online and computer games.
It’s the combination of the beauty of the tiled panels and especially the faceless (why?) killers that makes it cruel in ways we’re not used to and don’t expect to find on tiled church walls in one of Lisbon’s most beautiful churches. And not in Graça Church – our neighbour since 2013.
The story about the Martyrdom of Queen Ketevan
Ketevan reigned in Kakheti, a feudal state located in the east of Georgia, at the beginning of the 17th century.
She was killed in Shiraz, Iran, after prolonged torture sessions from the Safavid Suzerains of Georgia for refusing to give up her Christian faith and convert to Islam.
In 1614, sent by Teimuraz as a negotiator to Shah Abbas, Ketevan effectively surrendered herself as an honorary hostage in a failed attempt to prevent Kakheti from being attacked by the Iranian forces.
She was held in Shiraz for several years until Abbas I, in an act of revenge for the recalcitrance of Teimuraz, ordered the queen to renounce her Christian faith and, upon her refusal, he tortured her to death with red-hot pincers in 1624.
A Portion of her relics were clandestinely taken by the St Augustine Portuguese Catholic missionaries, eyewitnesses of her martyrdom, to Georgia where they were interred at the Alaverdi Monastery in the Kakheti region.
The rest of her remains were said to have been buried at the St. Augustine Church in Goa, India. After several expeditions to Goa in the 21st century to search for them, they were believed to be found in late 2013.
She was killed in Shiraz, Iran, after prolonged torture sessions from the Safavid Suzerains of Georgia for refusing to give up her Christian faith and convert to Islam.
In 1614, sent by Teimuraz as a negotiator to Shah Abbas, Ketevan effectively surrendered herself as an honorary hostage in a failed attempt to prevent Kakheti from being attacked by the Iranian forces.
She was held in Shiraz for several years until Abbas I, in an act of revenge for the recalcitrance of Teimuraz, ordered the queen to renounce her Christian faith and, upon her refusal, he tortured her to death with red-hot pincers in 1624.
A Portion of her relics were clandestinely taken by the St Augustine Portuguese Catholic missionaries, eyewitnesses of her martyrdom, to Georgia where they were interred at the Alaverdi Monastery in the Kakheti region.
The rest of her remains were said to have been buried at the St. Augustine Church in Goa, India. After several expeditions to Goa in the 21st century to search for them, they were believed to be found in late 2013.
I have seen the panels several times since my first visit many years ago. They are still fascinating.
And I still have a lot of unanswered questions… There are so many strange things about this panel!
First the secrecy about its existence here in Lisbon? Why are they not promoted as an attraction? Not even the Museu Nacional do Azulejo has information about them!!!
And why is it so difficult to find information about it online? You can get names, places, years, occasions – but who were the Monks who witnessed it all, why are the faces missing?
And why are the panels in Lisbon? Or rather why are they in Graça?
And how is it possible to make a full size replica and send it to a winery in Georgia without nobody knows? Even the smallest event finds it way to Facebook, so how and why so secret …
What do you think about the Tile Museum?
Yesterday one of our guests asked me about our opinion about the Museu Nacional do Azulejo.
I didn’t know what to answer. We usually don’t recommend it to people who visit Lisbon for the first time because there are so many other things and places we find more interesting.
I guess it’s worth a visit if you are interested in different tile traditions and techniques…. and the chapel is amazing – I answered.
Oh – you find it boring – the guest said and laughed.
I had to admit that – and at the same time told her about the beautiful tiled walls and panels we have all over town. Especially the relatively new Street-Art-Tiled-Walls that are popping up everywhere. Within 10 minutes from us we have works by Jorge Romão, AdFuel and legendary Mr A.
But the best of them all is the fantastic Martyrdom of Georgian Queen Ketevan Panels. They are not hidden away like they used to. But at the same time they are not promoted as they deserve. So unless you know about them, you won’t see them.
Thomas
