Terceiros Museum - Ponte de Lima

The Terceiros Museum is housed in two religious houses linked to the Franciscan Order: the extinct monastery of Santo António dos Capuchos and the building of the Third Order of Saint Francis .

The remaining part of the monastery, founded at the end of the 15th century by the mayor of Ponte de Lima, D. Leonel de Lima, consists of the church, the chapel of Senhora da Graça and the sacristy.

The monastery church shows some remains from the early period, but underwent important changes between the 17th and 19th centuries , especially concerning its contents. The church of the Third Order, built between 1745-1747 , was filled in the following decades with rococo altarpieces, pulpits and pelets.

Later, at the beginning of the 19th century, the choir and the pipe organ, both in neoclassical style, were added.

The museum was founded in the 1970s with the creation of the Instituto Limiano - Museu dos Terceiros. In 2002, the local government and the institute signed a protocol for the restoration and joint management of the space. It was reopened to the public in 2008 and is a reference in the field of sacred art in the north of the country. The museum's collection includes a significant series of religious sculptures, paintings, tiles from the 16th to the 18th centuries and liturgical objects.

Willem Vandenameele