Tabosa

The Monastery of Our Lady of the Assumption of Tabosa is the last Cistercian monastery that was founded (1692) in Portugal, to shelter nuns who observed the Recolectas rules. It is located in Beira Alta, near the convergence of the Sernancelhe Municipality and Moimenta da Beira, 30 km from the Douro River. It is integrated in the Douro core area of the Cistercian Order monasteries and convents, in the southernmost end of the “Vale do Varosa” (Varosa Valley), and is fully located in an area knowed as “Terras do Demo” (Devil’s Land). The Monastery is unique as it still maintains the Spirit of Silence, Meditation and Light that shaped its creation - in spite of the state of decay that the erosion of years has brought on it and keeps its layout practically intact in the place where it was settled, particularly the whole of its 2 ha. fenced farm. This Farm, which is delimited by high and thick enclosure fences (sometimes higher than 6 m.), is incredibly beautiful with watercourses, a mine and wells that supply the Monastery through aqueducts and stone irrigation canals: the hydraulic component, the vegetable garden, the meadow, the orchards and enclosure fences, retains its original shape from the late 17th century, when the Monastery was founded. The Church has a lateral door, as it was customary for a female convent or monastery, and holds many riches. Its two-storey Choir, which is backward in relation to the high altar, has an extraordinary wood railing. A delicate tuscan-columned Cloister is the center of the ground floor, with a fountain, as well as the ruins of the adjacent compartments, built in accordance with the usual layout of the Cistercian Order abbeys. Outside the Monastery, the Guest House, the Accommodations that were built to lodge the first construction workers of the Monastery, and the Via Crucis, which were erected in 1746 (and recently restored), still exists.
Verbergen

<br>
Verbergen