A masterpiece of Italian Baroque art, it was built to designs by Nicola Salvi and Luigi Vanvitelli between 1742 and 1750 in Rome, where it received the Pope's blessing. Some 130 artists took part in its construction; it was dismantled, transported to Lisbon by three caravels on the orders of King John V, and rebuilt around 1750 in the church of Saint-Roch. Everything about it is ostentatiously rich: lapis lazuli columns, amethyst altar fronts, white Carrara marble angels, coloured mosaic floor coverings and wall paintings...