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The portal is completely decorated into a lacework of sumptuous Manueline motifs, with flamboyant iconography including the armillary symbol of the cosmos, the cross of the Order of Christ (that decorated the sails of the Portuguese ships of the discoverers), spheres, winged angels, ropes, circles, tree stumps, trefoil arches and florid projections. Fernandes was again original by making the sculptural aspect dominate over the architectural aspect, united in an asymmetrical composition. Mateus Fernandes has tried to represent in stone, the exuberant and expansive spirit in the reign of King Manuel.
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