Monastery of Santo António dos Capuchos - Guimarães

The church of the Convent of Santo António dos Capuchos is located in the middle of a sacred hill and occupies the space of a building built in the 17th century as a convent and later converted into a hospital.

The Baroque façade of the church is bordered by pilaster wedges and is crowned by a serrated spire with an aedicula in the centre, with the coat of arms of the Franciscan Order on the corbel and flanked by pinnacles. It has an elongated plan, formed by a single nave and a rectangular choir. Three round arches open onto the first register and give access to a narthex with Baroque Joanine tiles. At the second entrance there is a carved window flanked by two niches with images of St. Francis and St. Anthony.

The church of Santo António dos Capuchos, located in the middle of a sacred hill, is currently what remains of the monastery of the same name. It cannot be ruled out that this monastery complex was somewhat controversial from the beginning of its construction. Three centuries have passed. It all began in 1662 , when King Afonso VI authorized the beginning of the construction of the monastery of the Capuchin friars of Guimarães, with the intention of using the stones of the destroyed Paços dos Duques de Bragança, the city walls and the castle . Of course, this idea of using these stones was contested by the people and the nobility. However, the work continued and, due to the opposition, the friars who had occupied the church of São Miguel do Castelo decided to occupy the unfinished monastery premises.

In the fourth decade of the 18th century, the friars asked the city council for a loan to rebuild the church . During this decade, the sacristy was also built under the direction of Friar António de Bastos. In the second half of the same century, the chapel and the transept were built, the secondary altarpieces were placed and at the beginning of the 19th century, the organ and the main altarpiece were placed. The year 1833 arrived and with it the suppression of the Religious Orders, but it was not until 1842 that the Capuchos Convent was acquired by sale to the Santa Casa da Misericórdia so that the new hospital could be built there, which allowed for further adaptation works to accommodate this new institution. As a result of these works, the convent buildings almost disappeared, transformed into infirmaries, leaving only the church, sacristy and cloisters.

A new process began as the Hospital de Santo António dos Capuchos in 1867 , the year in which the work on the hospital was completed and the old one was abandoned for good. Thus the institution remained until 1991, when it was closed and moved to the current hospital.

Willem Vandenameele