Church and Monastery of Santa Clara - Vila do Conde

The Monastery of Santa Clara was founded on May 7, 1318.

Some authors claim that there was already a castle on this hill, although there are no contemporary documents to prove this.

The construction of the church of Santa Clara began at the same time. It is difficult to know if anything remains of the original church, as it has undergone many interventions over the centuries and is even a fusion of different architectural styles, from the original Gothic to more recent styles such as Manueline, Baroque and Rococo.

Highlights include the beautiful rose window on the west , the battlements (which are merely decorative) and the tombs . The high choir and the chapel where the tombs of the founders are located date from 1526. At the end of the 17th century , when the convent was clearly falling into disrepair , attempts were made to build a new convent from scratch , something that was not achieved until 1778. The Convent of Santa Clara was reoccupied in 1788, with most of the building still unbuilt. Over the years, with insufficient funding, the French invasions and the Liberal Wars that culminated in the extinction of the religious orders, the project was never completed . The decree of extinction made it impossible to admit novices and left the institute to exist only until the death of the last nun, which happened on 21 May 1893 with the death of D. Ana Augusta do Nascimento. During this century, for various reasons, the monastery lost much of the property it had built up over the centuries.

In 1936, the last major transformation of the convent and the church of Santa Clara began , following the intervention of the General Directorate of National Buildings and Monuments. The work on the convent was finally completed , although it was smaller than what had been planned in the 18th century. The operation around the Church of Santa Clara was not as consensual. Historical elements that could have been restored, such as the last arches of the aqueduct, the bell tower or the tombstones of some abbesses, were unnecessarily demolished or even lost during the work. One hundred and sixty-two years after its beginning in 1778 , the reconstruction of the convent was completed in 1940.

The imposing main façade of the monastery, which overlooks the river, is notable for its central body, surmounted by a pediment with the royal arms and a statue of St Clare next to an elephant , a symbol of chastity. The platband is also decorated with several stone torches aligned with the pilasters.

From 1902 to 1944, it housed a juvenile detention center , which was supplemented in 1944 by a vocational school of the Salesian Congregation, which operated until 2005.

In 2008, the Vila do Conde Courthouse was temporarily housed here due to work on the Palace of Justice.

Since 2021 it has reopened as a 5-star top hotel.

Willem Vandenameele