Terrace-Chapel (at Our Lady of the Mountain Site)

Lubango [Sá da Bandeira], Huíla, Angola

Religious Architecture

The terrace-chapel was built in the park of Senhora do Monte, designed in 1962 by José Frederico Ludovice (1919-2007, chief architect of the 6th Section of Urbanization of the Department of Public Works and Communication of Angola), to fulfill the need of welcoming a growing number of believers who made the pilgrimage to the chapel. As published in Boletim... no. 20, 1968-1971, it consists of : “a wide space carved out of the hill side [...] in which the altar and stone benches remain in the open air, having as background a 21-metre baldaquin and a 17.6 m needle, made in concrete, as well as a statue weighing 750 kg, and 2.5m high. The strings of the well-known sculpture in the shape of a harp are made of fibre cement while the cross is made of galvanized steel. The fish, symbol of the eucharist, is made of forged iron. The altar, a massive block made of bricks and covered with ‘onkhula’, still lacks the paving and seating that remain to be made. It is [...] considered the spiritual symbol of Angola”.

• Cristina Udelsmann Rodrigues
• Dinis Candeias
• Maria Manuela Fonte
• Pedro Leone Rodrigo