Monastery of the Poor Clares of Coimbra: from convent to ruin, from ruin to contemporaneity [1283 - 2008] Mosteiro de Santa Clara de Coimbra : do convento à ruína, da ruína à contemporaneidade; coord. Artur Côrte-Real, coord cient....
moreMonastery of the Poor Clares of Coimbra: from convent to ruin, from ruin to contemporaneity [1283 - 2008]
Mosteiro de Santa Clara de Coimbra : do convento à ruína, da ruína à contemporaneidade; coord. Artur Côrte-Real, coord cient. Lígia Inês Gambini, texto e selecção de imagens Sara Dias Trindade e Lígia Inês Gambini, colaboração Ana Paula Figueira Santos
AUTOR(ES): Côrte-Real, Artur, ed. lit.; Gambini, Lígia Inês, ed. lit.; Trindade, Sara Dias, ed. lit.; Santos, Ana Paula Figueira, ed. lit.
PUBLICAÇÃO: [s.l.]: Direcção Regional de Cultura do Centro, 2008
DESC. FÍSICA: 96, [4] p.
"The Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha (Saint Clare - The Old) of Coimbra was first founded in 1283 by the noble and wealthy Lady Mor Dias. Due to a complex legal battle within ecclesiastical institutions it was extinguished. However Elisabeth of Aragon, Queen of Portugal, undertook to rebuild it in 1314. From then on the Queen would dedicate much of her time and property to enriching the convent. A new monastic complex, larger than Lady Mor’s, was erected.
Although Gothic the church has a solid facing and buttresses (Romanesque likewise) and a lower threshold, which apse and minor apses have a polygonal shape inside, a distinctive Gothic feature.
The church was the dominant building, with an unusual construction at the time because it has the nave and the two aisles of similar height and a stone vaulted arch (instead of the usual wooden covering typical of Mendicant Orders). As the church did not include a transept it was possible to enlarge the cloister and this turned out to be the greatest Gothic cloister in Portugal.
The church was consecrated in 1330, but it was flooded the following year by the rising waters of the nearby river Mondego.
Anyway the Queen chose the church of the monastery for her eternal rest and a large tomb was made for it. Due to the fame of miracles performed by the Queen, which led to her beatification in 1516 and canonisation in 1625, the tomb and the Monastery became a local of pilgrimage throughout the centuries.
The 1331’s flood was a preannouncement of what was to be a turbulent coexistence over the centuries, and which led to consecutive adaptations of the building to this cyclical intrusion. As a result, the ground floor was successively raised, but in the early 17th century (between 1612 and 1616) the nuns were forced to have a higher floor built inside the church. The lower floor was abandoned as were the outbuildings.
However, the complex would later be unfit for living in and the community had a new edifice erected in nearby Mount Esperança – the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Nova (Sainte Clare-the-New). Derelict after 1677, the original convent became known as Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha (Saint Clare-the-Old). Parts of the monastic buildings were dismantled and the constructive pieces were sold in order to raise money to help finishing the construction of the new convent.
After the religious community had left and due to the Liberal government politics in the 19th century it was determined the extinguishment of the religious congregations in Portugal. Therefore the monastery was sold out and its grounds were used as a private farm, while the upper part of the temple was converted into a dwelling, hayloft and stables.
However the aura of the charismatic Saint Queen, which devotion until today is well settled among the faithful, continued connected to the old monastery and it was classified as National Monument by decree of 16-6-1910.
Later, between 1930 and 1940s it underwent extensive restoration works funded by the Portuguese State. Nevertheless, the church continued at the mercy of the river, though it was established a non-aedificandi area within a Special Protection Zone in 1954 (recently enlarged - Decree nr. 381/2009).
The abandoned space and the submerging sediment, which left only the upper part of the church visible, created the image of a romantic ruin, which lasted until the end of the 20th century.
Acknowledged as one of the most significant monuments in Portugal, in the early 90’s, the Portuguese State began an intervention to rehabilitate the church and give the visitors better access conditions. Short after the works started the remains of the cloister structure (whose architecture was unknown, except for some references in texts of the 19th century), were discovered by fortune. Therefore the archaeological works extended its scope to the discovery of the north aisle of the cloister and between 1995 and 1997 all its aisles and parts of the other dependences were excavated. In consequence a late medieval structure emerged without the baroque additions that are commonly found at the other medieval Portuguese religious buildings, as well as constructive singularities that testify an attempt to escape from the river floods: raised floors/ new floor levels and the redoing of pillars (were the aesthetic concerns are present)".
