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Monastery · Santa Clara, Coimbra, Centre of Portugal

Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha

Mosteiro de Santa Clara-a-Velha

The Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha is the ruin of a Gothic Poor Clares' monastery on the left bank of the Mondego in Coimbra, excavated and reopened with an interpretation centre in 2009, according to the Centre of Portugal tourism board.

Why go

The Centre of Portugal tourism board says the monastery was first founded by Dona Mor Dias in 1286 and refounded in 1314 by Queen Elizabeth of Aragon (Saint Elizabeth of Portugal), and that the river's repeated floods led the nuns to leave in 1677 for the new monastery of Santa Clara-a-Nova, built by order of King John IV. It says works begun in 1991 under the archaeologist Artur Côrte-Real built a water-containment curtain around the site and uncovered the lower part of the church and the cloister. The site reopened in 2009 with an interpretation centre holding exhibition rooms and objects recovered in the excavations. This record is the old monastery's ruins with that centre, not the Santa Clara-a-Nova monastery. The regional culture directorate's pages did not answer this session, so ticket and booking rules are not stated here.

Base yourself nearby

City

Coimbra

Coimbra is a city on the Mondego River in central Portugal and the seat of its municipality; the Centre of Portugal tourism board says it was once the capital of the Portuguese kingdom and that its university is a UNESCO World Heritage site. XTOUR maps the university's Paço das Escolas, the Old Cathedral, the Monastery of Santa Cruz, the Machado de Castro National Museum and the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha in the city, and keeps Conímbriga and the Buçaco forest, which lie in other municipalities, apart from it.

Near Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha

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