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GPS 38.475316647801435, -8.993337615344165

Built in the 16th century, the Convent of Arrábida, covers, in its 25 hectares, the Old Convent, located in the highest part of the mountain, the New Convent, located halfway up the slope, the Garden and the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus.

At the top of the mountain, the four chapels, the set of watchtowers for venerating the mysteries of the Passion and some cells excavated in the rocks form what is conventionally called the Convento Velho.

The convent was founded in 1542 by Friar Martinho de Santa Maria, a Castilian Franciscan to whom D. João de Lencastre (1501-1571), first Duke of Aveiro, ceded the land on the hillside.

Prior to construction, there existed what is now the Old Convent, the Hermitage of Memory, a place of great pilgrimages, near which, for two years, lived, in cells excavated in the rocks, the first four arrábidos friars: Martinho de Santa Maria, Diogo of Lisbon, Francisco Pedraita and São Pedro de Alcântara.

D. Jorge de Lencastre, son of the 1st Duke of Aveiro, continued the work by ordering the construction of a fence to enclose the convent area. Later, his cousin D. Álvaro, ordered the building of the inn that served as accommodation and designed the watchtowers, on the crest of the hill, which connect the convent to the foot of the mountain, leaving, however, three unfinished. In turn, D. Ana Manique de Lara, D. Álvaro's daughter-in-law, had two chapels built, while D. Álvaro's son, D. António de Lencastre, had the Bom Jesus Sanctuary built in 1650.

With the extinction of the religious orders in 1834, the convent, cells and chapels spread across the mountains suffered several pillages and enormous damage caused by abandonment.

In 1863, Casa de Palmela acquired the convent, but the works only started in the 40s and 50s of the following century. Forty years later, in 1990, its then owner, Manuel de Souza Holstein Beck, sold the convent and the surrounding area, totaling 25 hectares, to the Fundação Oriente, the only institution which, in his view, gave guarantees of maintaining the values ​​with which, in the 16th century, his ancestors had handed him over to the Arrábidos.

Description

Complex formed by two walled nuclei: the old convent, with the chapel of Memory and Santa Catarina and the small hermitage of Jesus; and that of the new convent, of larger proportions, integrating the cluster of convent buildings, on the west side, implanted on platforms supported by supporting walls, to the north of the church and also the chapel of Bom Jesus, to the east, on a platform superior and surrounded by a walled atrium with a staircase; Outside the walled circuit, there are the chapels of São João do Deserto and São Paulo, as well as the various hermitages lining the hillside, next to the old convent. NEW CONVENT with a floor plan composed of several rectangular and square bodies articulated on ascending platforms separated by little stairs, adjacent to each other or isolated. Prismatic, articulated or simple volumes, with differentiated roofs in four and two-story roofs. On the lower platform, the church is preceded by two open atriums aligned along the axis of the nave, (the dirt graveyard without tombstones, with cypresses, the stone churchyard) with connecting stairs, surrounding rocky masses (the one at the entrance with the statue of São Pedro de Alcântara in prayer, another with an excavated cave with the image of Santa Maria Madalena). The church's façade ends in a gable, with frieze and cornice, crowned by a Latin cross on an acroterium, and is torn by two symmetrical spans, in a recessed arch over pilasters, the one on the left walled up, and the one on the right giving access to an endonarthex; Between the gaps appears, on a wide terrestrial globe and stepping on a dragon, the figure of an arrábido friar, with open arms in a cross, with a candle in his right hand and a cilice in his left, his eyes blindfolded, a padlock in his mouth and a lock on the chest, emblem of the virtues of the congregation. Above, over the arches, there is a panel of polychrome tiles, with the Adoration of the Custody (left), and a framed sill window with two-leaf frames (right), and, in the center, a niche opens up, in a round arch, on pilasters, sheltering the image of Nossa Senhora da Arrábida, protected by a glass door and having a volute apron in front of the church door. Overlapping the niche is the inscription "IHS" in embrechados. In the endonarthex, in front, there is the door of the church, and an access opening to a dark corridor parallel to the church, ending in a niche with the figure of Christ in prayer in the Horto (with tile panels of saints and hermits of the Order on the walls). The church has a rectangular plan consisting of a nave and chancel, to the W., covered by a depressed barrel vault, with adjoining sacristy and rectangular annex to the S.. the rest of the convent by a steep staircase, and a triumphal arch over pilasters; In the main chapel, there is a tribune with a double arch, one of which is walled up, communicating with a room on the upper level of the church. Torn in the rock, under the base of the chancel, is the fountain of Samaritana inside a niche covered by a barrel vault. Along the transept, the garden of São Pedro de Alcântara develops, with the chapel of Nossa Senhora da Piedade in the background, preceded by a niche torn in the rock, communicating with the lower landing, where two other chapels are aligned and with the Convent facilities on the upper levels: individual cells, refectory, library, chapter room, kitchen, oven, sanitary facilities, in buildings of different volumes, covered with hollow tiles, with the exception of the library and chapter room, with a coffered ceiling; on one of the levels, preceded by an open atrium with pillars on which a pergola rested, is the bishop's house, currently adapted as an auditorium; three chapels and several niches excavated in the rock form part of the complex, on different levels. THE CHAPEL OF BOM JESUS ​​is located in the center of a patio that extends to the W. by a staircase, preceded by a portal with a straight lintel and a pediment with volutes, opened in the surrounding wall; on the wall of the platform that precedes the chapel, there is an ashlar of blue and white tiles, with 18th-century panels alluding to the miracle of São Simão Estelita, with remains of a sculptural set commemorating the same miracle on the platform. The chapel has a centralized, square plan, with jagged and curved angles, covered by an octagonal dome, topped by a dome, covered with checkered blue and white tiles. The chapel is made up of two superimposed bodies, the lower one with a larger base and sloped walls, with threading in relief at the top, opened by four access doors to a central space, covered by a depressed vault, defining a Greek cross; the upper one, with a smaller base, has upright facades, defined by pilasters, crowned by pinnacles on circular acroteria, topped with an entablature, and torn by four straight lintel doors, topped by reclining windows, opening onto a surrounding veranda, with guard in iron. Inside, there is a central space, covered by ashlar tiles from the 18th century with garlands, covered by a dome over horns, and with four altars surrounding a central throne in gilded carving with a dobby inside.

Chronology

1250 - date of construction in the convent area of ​​a small chapel dedicated to Nossa Senhora da Arrábida, by Hildebrando, an English merchant, in thanksgiving for the miracle that saved him from a shipwreck;
1539 / 1542 - construction of the convent, sponsored by the 1st Duke of Aveiro, D. João de Lencastre, who donated it to Friar Martinho de Santa Maria, a Spanish Franciscan friar, who wanted to live there as a hermit;
century 16, 2nd half / cent. 17th, 1st half - the 2nd and 3rd Dukes of Aveiro continue the construction of the convent, with the construction of the inn and stations of Passos da Via Sacra; the daughter-in-law of the 3rd Duke sponsored the construction of the chapels of São Paulo and São João do Deserto;
1619 - the monk Friar Agostinho da Cruz, who inhabited the convent and became known as a great poet of Arrábida, is buried in the church;
century mid 17th - the 4th Duke of Aveiro orders the construction of the sanctuary of Bom Jesus;
1670 - 1676 - construction of the Nossa Senhora da Arrábida fort, by order of the regent D. Pedro, to protect the convent from pirate attacks;
1729 - rebuilding of the Chapel of Bom Jesus;
1798 - reconstruction of the fort;
1834 - Extinction of the Religious Orders, leading the friars to leave the convent;
1863 - purchase of the convent by the Dukes of Palmela;
1990 - sale of the convent to Fundação Oriente