Mosteiro de Arouca

It began with a dual community – male and female – having become a female monastery and adopted the Rule of Saint Benedict at the end of the 11th century. The affiliation with the Cistercian Order, which occurred in the 13th century, is associated with the figure of Infanta D. Mafalda, daughter of D. Sancho I, who, in 1220, decided to incorporate the nuns into the new Order. Endowed with a vast patrimony, it became one of the most important Portuguese female monasteries. Retreating to the convent, D. Mafalda gained a reputation for holiness, to which the discovery of the incorrupt state of her body contributed, and she was beatified in the 18th century. The convent was definitively extinguished in 1886, with the death of the last abbess nun. The monastic buildings are integrated into the urban fabric of the town of Arouca and, although of medieval origin, reflect the great transformations that took place in the 18th century. Only the remains of a 14th-century rose window and a 10th-century inscription evoke its antiquity.