The Convent of Nossa Senhora da Conceição () is a former
convent
A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community.
The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...
situated in the
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
of
Sé, in the historic centre of the
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
of
Angra do Heroísmo
Angra do Heroísmo (), or simply Angra, is a city and municipality on Terceira Island, Portugal, and one of the three capital cities of the Azores. Founded in 1478, Angra was historically the most important city in the Azores, as seat of the Roma ...
, in the
Portuguese archipelago of the
Azores
The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...
.
History
The ''Gracianos'' were initially installed at the site, establishing a
hermitage around 1584, before moving on in 1607 to the more central location of Alto das Covas.
Pedro Cardoso Machado, third nephew of Gonçalo Eanes, bought the land and buildings at the site for 160,000
réis
The first official currency of Brazil was the real (pronounced ; pl. ''réis''), with the symbol Rs$. As the currency of the Portuguese empire, it was in use in Brazil from the earliest days of the colonial period, and remained in use until 1942 ...
on 16 February.
abbess
An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa'') is the female superior of a community of nuns in an abbey.
Description
In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Coptic, Lutheran and Anglican abbeys, the mod ...
for life.[ Encountering difficulties with the ecclesiastical authorities in Praia, he obtained a papal bull from ]Pope Paul V
Pope Paul V (; ) (17 September 1552 – 28 January 1621), born Camillo Borghese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 16 May 1605 to his death, in January 1621. In 1611, he honored Galileo Galilei as a mem ...
(on 5 August 1606) to establish the monastery for the ''Order of Our Lady of the Conception'' in Angra.[
The convent began to operate on 11 April 1608, with nine nuns arriving on 13 April, but at its height, the convent sheltered 63 nuns.][
The Conceptionist convent was one of nine such monastic institutions on the island of ]Terceira
Terceira () is a volcanic island in the Azores archipelago, about a third of the way across the North Atlantic Ocean at a similar latitude to Portugal's capital Lisbon, with the island group forming an insular part of Portugal. It is one of the ...
, as later identified by Father António Cordeiro
António Cordeiro (c.1641; Angra – 2 February 1722; Lisbon) was a Portuguese Catholic priest in the Society of Jesus, Azorean historian, author of the classical chronicle ''Historia Insulana'', and first to publish a public opinion on the f ...
, in his ''História Insulana das Ilhas a Portugal Sujeytas no Oceano Occidental'':
:''"The seventh convent, is commonly known as the Conceptionist Nuns' onvent to distinguish it from the Clerics' Conceptionist College. It was this convent, whose stature and singular and perfect purpose they say, that in Portugal, there is only one similar in the east".''
On 24 July 1830, the Maria Josefa do Desterro was elected abadess, ultimately, the last Conceptionist prelate in Angra.[ On 20 January 1832, the Regency of Angra ordered that convent be cleared into order to transform the spaces into a military hospital.][ D. Pedro IV, by decree dated 2 April 1833, ceded to the Santa Casa da Misericórdia the buildings in order to install the ''Hospital de Santo Espírito'' making the nuns orderlies and nurses.][ Following the extinction of religious orders and administrative reforms by the Marquess of Pombal, in 1834, the remaining clergy from the Convent of Santo Espírito were transferred to the site.][
The building was damaged during the events of the 1 January ]1980 Azores earthquake
Striking the Autonomous Region of the Azores on 1 January, the 1980 Azores Island earthquake killed 73 people and injured over 400, causing severe damage on the islands of Terceira and São Jorge. Resulting from a strike slip fracture, typica ...
.[ There were a number of projects to demolish the site, but since 1984, many of them included the partial or complete preservation or restoration of the ruined structure. The regional government ultimately classified the ruins on 9 September 2004, including it in the historical classification for Angra.][
]
References
Notes
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Convent of Nossa Senhora da Conceicao (Angra do Heroismo)
Buildings and structures in Angra do Heroísmo
Nossa Senhora Conceica Angra
1606 establishments in Portugal