Explorations of a seaside city with a surprisingly ornate monastery!
Aveiro, Portugal, seems like a typical seaside Portuguese town. The city dates back until at least Roman times where it was a prime location for salt pans. They still exist today. There’s a nice city center, but for the most part, pretty typical. That is until you see the monastery. We’ll get back to that. Let’s check out a bit of the city first.
Starting with the Cathedral of Aveiro.
Morning mass was going on, so I popped in on the way out of town.
The cathedral is pretty small but does have some lovely chapels.
Traditional Portuguese azulejos (painted tiles) throughout the church. In this case, a lovely landscape. Not all painted scenes were depicting religious scenes.
There is a surprising amount of Art Nouveau buildings in this town.
Casa de Santa Zita. It looks like much of the town was constructed in the late 1800s and early 1900s based on the tiles. Exterior tiles weren’t common until the 1800s. The style actually originated in Brazil and came with the Brazilians that immigrated to Portugal.
Like many Portuguese cities the sidewalks are made of mosaics. These look great but get all warped when vehicles park on them.
Igreja da Misericórdia de Aveiro (Church of the Mercy of Aveiro), with blue and white azulejos.
Aveiro’s City Hall.
A canal crosses through the middle of town. No longer used for trading but for traditional boats, the moliceiros.
Love all the colors.
Turns out there are a ton of Art Nouveau buildings in Aveiro. They even have an Art Nouveau museum.
Close up on some moliceiros.
Museu de Arte Nova, the Art Nouveau museum.
This weather is not helping this area from not looking rundown. It is fine.
Love this.
More traditional moliceiros on the Canal de São Roque.
Capela de Nossa Senhora das Febres. So freaking cute.
So much Art Nouveau.
Nossa Senhora da Apresentação.
That altar is insane.
This was once all brightly gilded once.
Heading back through town to find that monastery.
But before we head to the main museum, we must check out another church. São João Evangelista is part of the Museum of Aveiro. It was constructed as part of a monastery in the 17th century. Much of the decoration is from 18th century renovations.
This is definitely Portuguese Baroque.
Painted azulejos became popular starting in the 17th century and went fully insane during the 18th century. Portuguese Baroque has all the azulejos.
The bottom half of the church is all azulejos.
Some of the tiles are a bit odd.
The Monastery of Jesus is now the Museum of Aveiro. It was established in the 15th century. Princess Joana of Portugal (1452-1490) was its biggest benefactor and a former resident. She never took vows since she was a the Portuguese line of succession, she spent about 18 years as a nun in the monastery. She died there at the age of 38 and gave her wealth to the monastery. She is considered a saint in Portugal, but according to the Vatican, she is only beatified, not quite a saint.
And you can probably see why I stopped in Aveiro. It wasn’t the Art Nouveau. (Although that was fantastic, too.)
The Lower Choir was converted to a chapel to house the tomb of Princess Santa Joana. She wished to be buried in a plain tomb. Her wish was only followed until 1693, the year after she was beatified.
A privacy gate separated the nuns from the general public.
The monastery church is small, but absolutely, stunning.
Even the organ is ridiculous. We’ll see the Upper Choir in a bit.
Paintings of Princess Joana are found throughout the church.
That ceiling, though.
A lovely cloister, with what is probably a nice fountain.
Another tiled chapel off the cloister.
The Upper Choir. Absolutely gorgeous.
The Refectory. The nuns would sit at long table to eat. They ate in silence except for the religious texts that would be read throughout the meal. Whomever was reading, would stand up in that pulpit.
Just a lot going on in this monastery.
There are a couple of smaller chapels off the Upper Choir.
Princess Joana died in this room and it has gotten very fancy since.
The entire chapel is ringed with paints from her life.
Aveiro ended up having much more than I expected and I only went to the one museum. The Museum of Aveiro preserves the gorgeous monasteries of Aveiro, plus the normal exhibits found in an art museum. There are a few more museums in Aveiro, plus there is a whole beach area nearby. Lots to see and do here.
Tune in for my next update where I explore the university city of Coimbra!
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Start at the beginning of this adventure!
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