Category: Civil Architecture > Museum
District: Coimbra > Coimbra > Coimbra > Santa Clara
The Santa Clara-a-Velha Interpretation Centre is located in the Santa Clara area, in Coimbra, next to the left bank of the Mondego River. Its position reflects a history of ancestral coexistence with the waters, a defining element of the landscape and life in the area throughout the centuries.
This centre was designed to unveil the fascinating trajectory of the Santa Clara-a-Velha Monastery. Its purpose is to narrate the life of the Poor Clare nuns and the building's troubled relationship with the Mondego floods, allowing visitors a deep understanding of the events that shaped this monument over time.
Resulting from an extensive archaeological recovery and research project, initiated in 1991, the centre presents the findings discovered on site. Through a valuable collection of vestiges, it offers a unique opportunity to reconstruct daily convent life and observe the architectural evolution of the monastery, as it was unearthed and studied.
Inaugurated in 2009, the building was designed by architects Alexandre Alves Costa and Sérgio Fernandez with a museological function. The space uses different resources, including multimedia records and the exhibition of recovered artifacts, to recreate the history of the monastery and the life of the community that inhabited it. This approach invites an immersion into the remarkable memory of this heritage.
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.pt
Coordinates DD: 40.2013107,-8.4324259
Coordinates DMS: 40°12'4.7"N 08°25'56.7"W