José Mendes Braga's sepulchral monument (1780-1851), in the Cemetery of Lapa, is also very original, fact being that part of its quality is certainly due to the work done on it by the italian artist Emídio Amatucci.This master may have implemented the ideas of the deceased tobacco contractor's wife - Maria Angélica da Natividade. The interesting tomb presents a typology for the first time proposed in portuguese cemeteries. It is a large tomb chest, with tuscan order columns on its corners, supporting an entablature, with drops hanging from the triglyphs.
Maria Angélica da Natividade wanted a tomb with only two places, because the couple had no living children when José Mendes Braga died. She ended up ordering a monument that commemorates the couple's love more than the actual concept of family, which we can commonly find in romantic cemeteries. It was not by chance that the top of the monument received the sculpture of a sitting dog – the symbol of fidelity, with the particularity of having been copied from José Mendes Braga's own dog. The oral tradition alludes to the fact that this dog followed the coffin to the tomb, watching over his late owner until he died there too.